The Attack Of The Clones
by Morwen Tindomerel
Summary: An Alternate Universe version of the movie in which QuiGon is still alive and Anakin much more mellow. Finished.
1. Attack On A Queen

The Chancellor's office was a red lined cavern dominated by a panoramic arc of window overlooking the towers of Coruscant. Palpatine sat with his back to the view facing the four Jedi Councilors seated before his desk; Master Yoda, Master Windu, Ki Adi Mundi and Plo Kloon. Three Jedi Masters stood quietly behind their chairs; Luminara Unduli, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yan Dooku. Several paces behind them a pair of silent Padawans, Obi-Wan's and Luminara's listened and watched.

The Chancellor looked pale and tired and his voice was troubled. "I don't know how much longer I can hold off the vote, my friends. More and more star systems are joining the separatists."

"If they do break away -" Mace Windu began and was cut off, uncharacteristically sharply, by the Chancellor.

"I will not let this Republic that has stood for a thousand years be split in two. My negotiations will not fail!" He looked almost appealingly to the tall Jedi behind Yoda's chair. "Master Dooku, didn't you find the Separatists ready to listen to reason?"

"Many of the leaders I spoke to have expressed their willingness to return to Republic if their grievances, just grievances, were addressed," he agreed quietly.

"And there is our problem," said Palpatine with a small gesture of despair. "How can I give in to the Separatists' demands - however justified - without encouraging further rebellion?"

"Chancellor," Mace was still doggedly determined to make his point. "If war should come there are not enough Jedi to defend the Republic - we are keepers of the peace not soldiers."

War. The word visibly rattled Palpatine. This time it was Yoda he turned to for reassurance. "Master Yoda, do you think it will really come to war?"

The dimuniative ancient Master bowed his head, eyes closing as he reached out to the Force, wrinkled face tense with effort. But after a moment he gave up with a sigh and opened his eyes to look sadly at the Chancellor. "The Dark Side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is."

Whatever Palpatine might have said in reply was cut off by the hologram of an aid materializing on his desk: "The Queen of Naboo, Chancellor."

Palpatine practically leapt to his feet. "Send her in at once!"

The doors were opened by a pair a faceless Red Guards and Queen Amidala swept in, layered robes of crimson, purple and gold billowing, her, masklike painted face framed by a massive golden sunburst of a crown. She was followed by a soberly gowned Senator Jamillia, Naboo's representative, and a bevy of hooded handmaidens.

Palpatine moved quickly to meet her, taking both hands in his, "Your Majesty! Thank heavens you're safe. When I heard of the attack on your ship -"

"I am sorry you were alarmed, Chancellor," her voice was crisp, a little metallic, over-controlled. "Do you have any idea who could be responsible?"

"Our intelligence points to disgruntled Spice miners on the moons of Naboo." Mace said quietly.

Palpatine shook himself. "Forgive me, your Majesty, may I present Master Mace Windu, of the Jedi Council."

The Queen nodded a stiff greeting. "It is my belief the separatists are behind both our troubles with the miners and the attack on my ship."

"May I ask why your Majesty thinks so?" Dooku asked smoothly.

The white mask quivered a little suddenly uncertain. "Call it a - a feeling I have."

Dark eyebrows, startling in contrast with the sleek silver hair, rose slightly. "Your Majesty's opposition to a military solution to the crisis is well known. I understand you are here to speak against the formation of an army of the Republic - far from seeing you as a threat the separatists would logically regard you as an ally of sorts."

The Queen stiffened in outrage. "I am no ally to enemies of the Republic!"

"Of course you're not, Ma'am." Obi-Wan put in quickly. "Master Dooku was simply pointing out that the separatists have no reason to want to harm you."

"I see." She glanced at Dooku; "Forgive me, Master Jedi." he bowed acceptance and she turned back to Obi-Wan with a little smile. "And it is good to see you again, Jedi Kenobi."

Obi-Wan returned the smile but his eye had strayed to the cluster of young women behind the Queen. "If I may ask your Majesty -"

"Captain Panaka was killed in the blast," Amidala answered, smile vanishing. "Sabe and Yane, were badly injured. They were taken directly to the Senatorial Medical Center."

"I assure your Majesty they will have the best of care," Palpatine said quickly, taking her arm he guided her to one of the chairs vacated by the Jedi. "Your safety must be our chief concern."

"Yes." Yoda agreed. "In grave danger the Queen is."

Amidala looked at him and visibly tried not to stare.

"Master Yoda, also of the Jedi Council," the Chancellor explained, bending solicitously over her. Straightening he continued to Yoda, "Master Jedi, may I suggest that her Majesty be placed under the protection of your graces?"

"That's not necessary -" the Queen was beginning when Senator Jamillia, with a fine disregard for protocol, interrupted: "I disagee, your life is in danger, Amidala! The captain of your guard and the entire crew of your ship is dead and we don't know if Sabe and Yane are going to live."

"I don't need more guards!" Amidala argued. "I need to know who is trying to kill me and why!"

"I realize additional security might be disruptive for your Majesty," Palpatine interposed smoothly as the two young women glared at each other. "But perhaps an old friend, like Master Kenobi?" An even better idea struck him; "Or perhaps Master Jinn?" Palpatine looked at Mace who looked at Obi-Wan.

"I expect Master Qui-Gon back today," the young Master said quickly. He smiled at Amidala. "Both he and his Padawan would be glad of a chance to see your Majesty again."

"Please, Ma'am, do it for _my_ sake," The Chancellor pressed, sensing she was weakening. "The thought of losing you is unendurable."

Defeated Amidala could only bow her head in reluctant consent.

…..

Two Jedi Knights, trailed by a third, stepped out onto the windswept plaza high atop the Temple and walked slowly towards the landing platform above the north-east face. Their dark robes fluttered in the stiff breeze and the tallest Knight's silver white hair glittered in the sunlight.

"So the Council has commissioned you to investigate the Queen's near assassination," Dooku mused. "It will be interesting to see where the trail leads."

Obi-Wan looked curiously up at the elder Master. "You yourself said the separatists have no reason to wish Queen Amidala harm."

"So I did," Dooku agreed, "but her Majesty's intuition should not be dismissed lightly." He gave his Padawan's Padawan a quick glance from keen, dark eyes. "The Force is with her."

"I have felt that too," Obi-Wan said quietly. "But I do not know what it means."

Dooku sighed. "It means Amidala of Naboo is, in her own way, as much an instrument of the Force as any Jedi. Though what service it requires of her," he shook his head, "not even she knows - yet."

"You think she's right," Obi-Wan said, a faint note of surprise in his voice.

"I fear she may be." the small party had reached the edge of the landing platform. Dooku tilted his head back, searching the crowded sky, as he continued: "My feelings tell me there is a Dark Force behind the separatist movement, using it, as the Trade Federation was used ten years ago."

"You suspect the Sith?"

"I do. You killed the apprentice, Obi-Wan, but the Master lives and I greatly fear he is, at last, showing his hand." Suddenly the old Jedi Master turned on the youngster standing quietly behind them. "Do I frighten you, young Jacen?"

The Padawan, a stocky, dark haired boy, met his eye steadily. "Yes, Master, you do."

Dooku nodded approval. "Good. Never let fear rule you, Padawan, but do not ignore it either. It is a warning to be heeded." His tone darkened, "We Jedi have been too complacent and we will pay for it before the end."

"Now you are frightening me, Master," Obi-Wan said drily.

Dooku flashed him a smile. "I hope so. You're even more reckless than your Master."

"Like Master like Apprentice," Obi-Wan riposted, a teasing glint in his eye.

And Yan Dooku, Master of Obi-Wan's Master, laughed out loud, acknowledging the hit.

Jacen pointed skyward. "There, Masters." A small flyer had detached itself from the endless stream of Coruscant's air traffic diving steeply, dangerously steeply, towards the Temple's landing platforms.

Obi-Wan shook his head; "Ani! Why Master's hair isn't snow white after ten years of being piloted by Anakin Skywalker I'll never know."

The flyer leveled at the last possible moment then settled gently as a fallen leaf onto the platform. The canopy popped open and two tall, brown robed figures climbed out. The three waiting Jedi moved to meet them.

"Two weeks overdue, Qui-Gon," Dooku observed, cocking an eyebrow expectantly.

Qui-Gon Jinn smiled easily at his mentor. "We decided to make a slight detour."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.

"It's my fault," Anakin put in quickly. "I started having dreams about my Mother, bad dreams like she was in trouble, danger." He smiled gratefully at Qui-Gon. "Master decided we should go see if she was all right."

"Our course took us near Tatooine," Qui-Gon said mildly. "And I was concerned as well." He smiled affectionately back at Anakin. "I owe Shmi a great deal."

"I take it she is all right?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin's smile became a grin. "She's great. She's free. She's got a home and a new family."

"So you don't need to worry about her anymore." Obi-Wan said, quite gently - he knew how hard it had been for a nine year old boy to leave his mother behind all those years ago.

"No," Anakin agreed. "She's fine, she's happy. I can let her go now."

"I'm afraid another old friend of ours is not doing so well," Obi-Wan told Qui-Gon. "Queen Amidala of the Naboo arrived this morning to address the Senate on the subject of the military appropriations bill. Her ship was attacked shortly after landing and totally destroyed."

Anakin went white.

Qui-Gon put a firm hand on his shoulder. "The Queen?"

"She was unharmed. But our old friend Panaka was killed, and Sabe and Yane are badly hurt."

"Poor Padme!" Anakin said, shaken. "They're like her family - she must feel awful."

"She was very upset," Obi-Wan agreed quietly, "and with good reason. I find I'm somewhat distressed myself."

"Obi-Wan has been given the task of investigating the attack," Dooku continued as the five of them turned to go back inside the Temple. "And the Council intends to assign you, my former Padawan, and your young apprentice, to protect the Queen."

"Great!" all three Masters turned in unison to look at Anakin. He flushed. "I mean, of course I want to do anything I can to help Padme. And I'd like to see her again it's been very long time."

Dooku, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan exchanged little headshakes of mingled amusement and disapproval and continued on. Anakin put a hand on Jacen's arm, letting the Masters get well ahead of them, out of earshot.

"You're sure she's all right?"

"Positive," Jacen answered firmly. "I saw her. She was upset, like Master said, but not hurt at all." He gave his friend a sidelong glance. "She didn't look all that pretty to me."

Anakin glared then realized he was being deliberately provoked. "She's not 'pretty'," he said with dignity. "She's beautiful," his voice warmed, "The most beautiful girl in the whole Galaxy!" Then he checked himself, just a little too late. "Although I admit it's hard to tell under that face paint and those robes."

"Ani," Jacen said warningly. "You're a Jedi Knight. She's a Queen, and your assignment, don't go trying to make her more than that."

"She is more, she's an old friend. Even Jedi are allowed to have friends," Anakin answered defensively. "I'll be glad to see her again - what's wrong with that?"

Jacen just shook his head resignedly. His headstrong friend was clearly headed for trouble - again.

….

"Your Highness," Eirtae stood in the doorway, tension just visible through her carefully trained composure, "a call from the Medical Center."

Trembling Amidala rustled across the floor to cue the room's receiver. "Yes?"

Sache appeared on the screen, her arm and shoulder encased in a protective frame and one side of her face bruised from its violent contact with the landing platform. "Sabe and Yane are responding well to the bacta treatments," she reported smiling happily, "the doctors expect them to make a full recovery."

The Queen closed her eyes, keeping command of herself with an effort. "That is good to hear. Stay with them, Sache, let me know the minute they regain consciousness - and get some rest."

"Yes your Highness." The screen went dark and Amidala turned to fall into Eirtae's arms. They clung to each other, no longer Queen and handmaiden but two friends sharing tears of relief and gratitude.

"Ammi?" They broke apart to see Senator Jamillia watching them anxiously.

The Queen smiled quickly, wiping at her wet eyes with her sleeve. "Sabe and Yane are going to be fine, Sache just called with the good news."

Eirtae pushed her arm down and produced a handkerchief, efficiently dabbing the tears away.

Jamillia sighed with relief. "I'm so glad."

"That's one load off my mind," Amidala agreed. Passing Jamillia she walked out onto the balcony, at that moment even Coruscant's endless skyjam looked good.

"Your Highness! I don't think it's wise -"

"Really, Captain Typho!" she started to explode but pulled herself back under control. The burly, handsome officer facing her was Jamillia's chief of security, at Panaka's death he had inherited the duty of guarding his Queen and the extra responsibility was clearly telling on him. "The balcony is shielded," she continued more calmly, "and I don't think any lurking assassin is likely to recognize me." Though she was elaborately dressed, as always, in full skirts of indigo and violet with feathers and jewels coiled into her complicated hair-do she wasn't wearing the royal white-face and could easily be taken for the Senator or one of the handmaidens.

"Forget it, Typho, she's always been stubborn," Jamillia chimed in. "At school we used to say there's a right way and a wrong, way but Lady Amidala always does it _her_ way."

Amidala most un-regally stuck her tongue out at her old school friend. The distinguished Senator returned the gesture.

Typho sighed. "Maybe she'll listen to the Jedi."

"Don't count on it," Eirtae said drily.

….

"You're nervous," Qui-Gon observed with a sidelong look at his Padawan.

"No I'm not," he denied.

The Master glanced at Anakin's fingers worrying the edge of his sleeve and said nothing.

"Okay, maybe a little nervous."

"Padme was very fond of you, Anakin," the Master reminded him.

"Yeah, well I'm not that cute little boy anymore," he answered, almost forlornly. "What if she doesn't like the change?"

Qui-Gon gave his apprentice an amused, assessing look. "I think she'll approve."

"Master Jinn and Jedi Skywalker, your Highness." Rabe announced.

At first all Amidala saw was the Master, a little grayer than she remembered but still radiating the serene authority that had reassured and occasionally infuriated her ten years ago. "Master Jinn, it's been much too long."

"It is my pleasure to be of service to you again - young handmaiden," he replied with a twinkle and she laughed. "You remember my Padawan learner of course."

She looked past him, up into a pair of smolderingly intense blue eyes gazing down at her from a leanly handsome face that bore no resemblance whatever to the cherubic, childish features she remembered. Her breath caught and her heart pounded, surely she wasn't blushing? "Ani?" she managed, struggling to pull herself together. "My goodness, you've grown!" Oh nice going, Amidala, could you possibly have said anything stupider?

"So have you," this tall, handsome stranger answered, still holding her with those incredible eyes, "grown more beautiful I mean."

With a tremendous effort she tore her gaze from his and produced an artificial little laugh. "Oh, Ani, you'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine!" Sure, meeting childhood friends always made her knees weak and her palms sweat.

She sat down on a couch with Jamillia beside her and Rabe, Eirtae and the Senator's three handmaidens ranged behind. The Jedi, in response to her gesture, seated themselves on the couch opposite but the security chief chose to stand.

"I'm very grateful you're here, Master Jedi," he told them earnestly. "I'm Captain Typho, in charge of security here at the embassy. The situation is far more dangerous than her Majesty will admit."

"I don't need more security, I need answers!" Padme snapped.

"And Obi-Wan will find them for you," Anakin assured her. "The Council has ordered him to make a full investigation of the attack on your ship." He smiled a disturbingly intimate smile. "And you know how persistent Obi-Wan can be!"

She found herself smiling back. "I remember."

"In the meantime Anakin and I will make our presence as unobtrusive as possible," The Master said mildly.

"You are both most welcome - as old friends if not as guards." she stood abruptly, Jamillia and the Jedi rose with her. "Now if you will excuse me, I will retire." She started for the bedroom, trailed by Rabe and Eirtae then turned back abruptly; "Oh, Master Jinn, you may have heard Sabe and Yane were injured in the attack, I'm sure you'll be happy to know they're expected to make a full recovery."

"That is indeed good to hear," the Master smiled gently. "Thank you, your Highness."

She gave him a slightly stiff, queenly smile in return and escaped into her bedroom.

"My goodness, the difference ten years makes!" Eirtae remarked, helping Amidala out of her cumbersome gown.

"Yes, I feel quite elderly," Rabe agreed, slipping the dressing robe over her Queen's shoulders. Amidala sat down at the dressing table and Rabe began to unravel her intricate hairdo, handing feathers and ornaments to Eirtae to be put away. "Little Ani makes a very handsome man doesn't he, your Highness?" she continued.

"I suppose so." Amidala said shortly.

"If you like tall, blond, intense young men who can't take their eyes off you," Eirtae said slyly.

"Don't be ridiculous!" the Queen snapped, "Jedi don't have those kinds of feelings."

"Maybe not, but Ani is a very young Jedi," Rabe pointed out. "And he had a terrible crush on you when he was nine."

Now she was blushing, and the handmaidens saw it. "He's not nine anymore."

"We noticed." said Rabe.'

…

The wreckage of the Queen's ship had been removed but the landing platform was still scorched and pockmarked by the explosions that had destroyed it. Obi-Wan moved to greet the lanky red robed figure climbing out of the sky car, trailed by his Padawan. "General Binks." he said, bowing. Jacen thought he caught an almost teasing note in his Master's voice.

The general, an amphibious alien of unfamiliar type, showed small sharp teeth in a wide grin. "Obi! Mesa so smilin' at seein' yousa again!"

"It's good to see you too, Jar Jar," Obi-Wan replied as his hand was enthusiastically pumped. He waved towards Jacen with his free arm. "My Padawan Learner, Jacen Darklighter."

Jacen bowed as the alien beamed on him. "Last time Mesa seein' you, Obi, yousa was the learner. Now yousa teachin' a Paddywan of your own."

"And you are now an associate representative to the Senate very impressive, old friend."

"Mesa very important, very *responsible* now." the general answered, not entirely happily, "heavy burden."

"I can imagine." Obi-Wan became serious. "Jar Jar, I understand you witnessed the attack on the Queen's ship."

Suddenly the alien's protruding eyes were filmed with tears. "Bad, muy bombad. Panaka killed!"

"I know," the Master said somberly. "Jar Jar I need you to tell me exactly what you saw - in as much detail as possible."

The general closed his eyes in concentration for a moment then led them briskly across the platform to a spot near one of the mooring docks. "Wesa standing here," he announced. "Mesa, Senator Jamillia, Captain Typho, with Dorme, Verse and Corde behind usen."

Obi-Wan raised a hand, "Who?"

"Dorme, Verse and Corde, Senator's handmaidens," Jar Jar explained.

"I see, go on."

"Ship comen over oursa heads, settin' down there." the general pointed to the blackened and torn section of the platform. "Gangway lowers, Panaka come outen with Queen behind him. All of a sudden *boom*," he mimed an explosion with his long arms, "right in theirsa faces. Bodies lying everywhere! Wesa run to see if Queen is all right." He swallowed, visibly distressed. "Shesa covered with blood but not Queen, Padme kneeling beside heren dressed as pilot -"

"I see." the Master interrupted. "She flew in on one of the escort fighters. That's why she wasn't hurt."

"Yes, yes, Panaka's idea." Jar Jar went on: "Itsa _Sabe_ whosa hurt. Padme crying, Yane bombad hurt too and Sache. Rabe and Eirtae okeyday. Captain Typho say wesa must be getten away from ship, hesa pickin' up Sabe, mesa pickin' up Yane and wesa all runnin' to transport. Then ship goes boomer behinden usen, big fireball, wings fallin' off, crew all dead, guards dead, Panaka dead." The general hung his head; "Bombad, muy muy bombad."

"Indeed," Obi-Wan agreed grimly. "Jar Jar, you said the first explosion was in front of Panaka, are you quite sure of that?"

"Certain sure!" The general nodded emphatically.

"So it was on the platform not on the gangway or from inside the ship?"

Jar Jar thought a moment, then nodded agreement. "Boomer on platform."

"Now that is interesting." Turning the Master walked to the damaged section of the platform, cast about a bit then knelt to examine something. "Look at this," he said to Jacen and the general as they came up beside him, showing blackened fingertips.

Jacen bent to sniff at the residue. "Pyrotite!"

His Master nodded and glanced at the puzzled Jar Jar. "A powerful explosive favored by professional assassins. There must have been two charges, one in front of the gangway the other directly under the ship itself. Whoever it is who wants the Queen dead hired a professional right here on Coruscant to do the job."

The general pulled down his wide mouth in a frown. "Muy muy money, mesa don' think miners could afford thisen."

"An excellent point, General," Obi-Wan agreed. "The separatists on the other hand are backed by the wealthy Trade Federation, whose Viceroy has a personal grudge against her Highness."

….

"So, Master Kenobi, you now agree with me that the separatists are responsible for the attack?" Queen Amidala, in royal white-face, sat between Jar Jar and Jamillia on the sofa with the five handmaidens ranged behind them and Captain Typho to one side. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon faced her on the other couch, their Padawans at their backs.

"It is beginning to look like the more likely possibility," he admitted. "As General Binks pointed out the miners haven't the money or the contacts to obtain the services of a Coreworld assassin."

"And Nute Gunray has personal reasons for wanting you dead, Padme," Anakin put in, trying to ignore Obi-Wan's chiding look.

"It's outrageous he's still Viceroy of the Trade Federation after what he did," Jamillia fumed. "It seems these days money will buy anything, even the Supreme Court of the Republic!"

"When he took office Chancellor Palpatine swore to me he'd put an end to the corruption in the Senate," the Queen said grimly.

"He has tried, Padme," Anakin broke in again. "But every attempt at reform has been blocked or sid-lined by the commercial interests."

"The Chancellor dare not be too aggressive, your Highness, or he'll lose his position," Obi-Wan added drily.

"You are so cynical!" Anakin complained.

Obi-Wan half turned to look at him. "Not without reason, Padawan."

"The Chancellor is a good man doing his best -" Anakin began with some heat.

"Palpatine is a politician," Obi-Wan said flatly. "I've observed that he's very clever at following the passions and prejudices of the Senators."

"The Chancellor's campaign against corruption is not the issue," Qui-Gon said firmly. "The Queen's safety is."

"Sorry Master," said Obi-Wan, chastened.

"Sorry Master," echoed Anakin.

Qui-Gon turned back to the Queen. "Your Highness, I recommend further precautions."

"I agree!" Typho said fervently.

Amidala looked from one to the other, "Oh, very well." She forced a smile. "I do want to live to make my address tomorrow."

The Master smiled back at her. "We will see that you do," he promised, and stood. "Anakin, set up the surveillance cameras on this floor." Qui-Gon looked back at the Queen, "with your Highness' permission?"

"Yes of course." she said graciously.

"Captain Typho, Obi-Wan, I would appreciate your advice."The three of them left, followed by Jacen.

Jamillia stood up too. "This has been a terrible day. I'm glad it's nearly over."

Amidala embraced her lightly, careful not to get white face paint on her friend. "Get some rest, Milla, and try not to worry. I'm in good hands."

The Senator essayed a wan smile and left trailed by handmaidens.

Jar Jar had stood up when Jamillia did. He looked at Anakin, shaking his head in disbelief. "Issa that really you, Ani? Yousa gotten biggen!"

"Well it has been ten years, Jar Jar," he smiled. "I grew up."

"Up, up!" the Gungan agreed and leaned across the sofa to pull him into a hug. "Mesa bustin with gladness at seein' you again, Ani." He declared, then added in a carrying whisper, "Takin' good care of Padme, please."

"I will." he promised.

"Good night, Jar Jar." said the Queen.

"Gooden night, Padme. Gooden night Ani." he followed the others to the lift.

Rabe and Eirtae exchanged significant glances and silently withdrew to the bedroom. Amidala didn't see them go, she was busy watching Anakin.

He took a number of tiny camera units from a case at his belt and, cupping them in one hand, moved around the room placing them, graceful as a zoorif bird skimming over the water, his dark mantle flowing with his movements.

"That's a very pretty dress," he said suddenly.

She jumped a little. "Thank you." it was a rather clinging diaphanous black decorated with orichalc goldwork. More orichalc work dangled from the combs ornamenting her hair. "Actually it's one of Milla's, most of my wardrobe was incinerated."

"Including that black feather number I hope!" he said with a quick grin over his shoulder.

She giggled - good heavens what was the matter with her? "I have _that_ dress packed away in the palace attics."

"Good. That was the worst but none of those formal gowns really suite you." He stopped planting cameras to look at her. "I like you best in simple things."

Amidala swallowed, trapped again by those eyes. "My - my position requires me to dress in a certain way, just as yours does."

He smiled again. "Only a Jedi is supposed to dress as plainly as possible."

Amidala couldn't think of a thing to say, her brain was melting like wax in the sun. Those _eyes_... Abruptly he turned away and went into the bedroom. She shook herself and hurried after him. "Anakin," he glanced at her inquiringly, "what are you doing?"

"Placing surveillance cameras as Master told me," he answered, surprised.

"In here!" she gasped.

"Of course in here," he said, even more puzzled. "We have to see you to guard you, Padme."

"Anakin Skywalker I'm not having you watching me sleep!" Her face burned under its paint at the very thought.

"But -"

"No, absolutely not!"

Stymied he stared at her helplessly for a moment then pulled out his comlink. "Artoo, come up to the Queen's suite, I need you."

"Artoo?" she echoed.

"The little astro-droid you gave me, you remember, R2-D2."

"Oh, yes." she sat down on the bed. "Obi-Wan didn't want you to take him."

"That's because Jedi aren't supposed to own anything but their clothes and their lightsabre." Anakin explained, sitting beside her. He grinned. "So I don't own Artoo, the Temple does. I just use him." Then he continued more seriously: "I've made a lot of changes over the years he's not just a standard astro-mech anymore. I'll put him in your room. That'll be all right won't it? I mean he is just a droid."

"I guess so. I mean of course it will." She groped for an excuse for her reaction. "It's just I don't want to look too well guarded, the assassin might not try again."

"I thought you wanted to live to make your speech - Oh!" He stared at her in sudden comprehension.

"We want to catch our assassin not just discourage him." she said.

Anakin frowned. "I don't like using you as bait, Padme."

"But I'll have Artoo in here with me and you and Master Qui-Gon will be just outside."

"That's true." He nodded slowly. "Okay, if that's the way you want it."

"It is."


	2. The Second Attempt

Anakin sat cross-legged on the floor of the Queen's sitting room, eyes half closed in meditation. Only a few standing lights were still burning and the door to the bedroom was securely shut. Suddenly his eyes popped open and he got to his feet. A moment later the lift door opened for Qui-Gon, still accompanied by Obi-Wan and Jacen.

"Captain Typho has more than enough men downstairs," Obi-Wan was saying. "No assassin will try that way."

The Master nodded, face closed eyes distant. His past and present Padawans looked at him and then at each other, they knew that look.

"Master?" Anakin prodded.

Qui-Gon blinked, focused on him and smiled; "Anything to report?"

"Quiet as a tomb, the girls went to bed an hour or so ago." Anakin glanced uneasily around the luxurious room. "I don't like just waiting here for something to happen to her."

"Don't anticipate, Anakin, focus on the moment." the Master sat down on one of the couches. "We must be patient."

"I'm sorry, Master," Anakin shrugged at little. "I'm not much good at patience."

That got him an amused glance from his Master. "I know."

Obi-Wan picked up the small security monitor lying on a table and frowned at the blank screen." "What's this?"

"She wouldn't let me put any cameras in her room." Anakin explained, adding apologetically. "I don't think she liked the idea of me watching her."

"What is she thinking?" Obi-Wan looked towards the bedroom door as if tempted to shake the Queen awake and demand an explanation.

"Artoo is in there with her," Anakin assured Qui-Gon, "set on surveillance mode. He'll pick up an intruder as quickly as the cameras would."

"I'm not worried about intruders," Obi-Wan snapped. "Professional assassins have ways of killing from a distance that not even Artoo could detect."

"I know but we want to catch this assassin, don't we, Master?" Anakin countered, still addressing Qui-Gon.

"You're using her as bait?" Obi-Wan sounded incredulous as well as angry.

"It was her idea." Anakin retorted defensively and turned back to Qui-Gon. "Don't worry no harm will come to her. I'm aware of everything going on in that room."

"It's too risky," said Obi-Wan, also to Qui-Gon, then to Anakin: "Besides, your senses aren't that attuned, young Padawan."

"And yours are?" Anakin challenged, temper fraying.

Obi-Wan's look was sternly quelling, "possibly!"

"Obi-Wan is older and more experienced," the Master cut in quietly. "And you are letting emotion cloud your mind, Anakin. Let go of fear and feel the Living Force."

His Padawn bit his lip. "I'll try, Master."

"Do or do not, there is no try," Jacen quoted in a rather good imitation of Yoda's voice. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan grinned and the tension between them eased.

"Stay with us, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon continued. "It may be we'll solve your problem as well as our own tonight."

Hours passed. The Master occupied one couch, radiating peace as he meditated, and Jacen the other, openly dozing. Obi-Wan and Anakin stood near the bedroom door talking in undertones:

"Master risked his own future with the Order to see you trained," Obi-Wan said with quiet intensity, "will you throw that gift back in his face?"

"Of course not," Anakin hissed back. "I'd never do that to him!"

"Then _think _about what you are doing, Anakin!" the young Master retorted. "If you continue to follow your impulses you could hurt a lot of people," he nodded towards the bedroom, "including her!" Then his voice softened, "Not to mention yourself."

"I've thought about her and dreamed about her every day for the last ten years." Anakin admitted painfully and took a deep breath. "You're right, Padme's an attachment, like my Mother, and like Mom I've got to let her go."

Obi-Wan put a consoling hand on his shoulder suddenly both their heads swiveled towards the door.

"Obi-Wan!"

"I feel it also!"

Sabres drawn they sprinted into the Queen's Bedroom

Amidala woke with a shock. She had a split second glimpse of segmented, multi-legged _somethings _before they vanished in a flash of green light. She saw Anakin standing over her on the bed, sabre blazing in his hand, and Obi-Wan go through the window with a crash of glass and clash of blinds.

"Idiot!" Anakin doused his sabre and ran out past Master Qui-Gon.

The other Padawan started to follow but the Master called him back. "No, Jacen, I need you here."

Eirtae and Rabe hurtled into the room, flinging themselves down beside her. "Your Highness, are you all right?"

Amidala managed a nod, her voice wasn't working yet.

Typho was right behind them with a pair of guards. "What happened?"

"The Queen is safe," Qui-Gon answered, "but she mustn't stay here."

"She can come down to my rooms." Jamillia spoke breathlessly from the doorway, a robe clutched around her and a handmaiden at her back.

"An excellent idea, Senator," Qui-Gon approved. "Your Highness?"

"Yes, yes of course." Amidala said shakily. She got out of bed and Rabe quickly draped a dressing gown over her. She started for the door, Eirtae's arm around her, paused to look at the broken window and then at the Master. "Obi-Wan, Anakin...?"

"They'll be all right," he reassured her eyebrows quirking ruefully. "I'm afraid both my past and present Padawans are somewhat reckless."

Amidala scraped up a smile. "I wonder where they could have learned it from?" and his eyes crinkled in answering amusement.

"Come on, Ammi," Jamillia said taking her arm, "it'll be just like at school. Remember how we used to sneak into each other's rooms after hours?" they headed for the lift, the other four women clustered tightly around her, and nearly collided with Jar Jar and the two armed Gungans at his heels.

"Padme! Yousa not hurtin?"

"I'm fine, General Binks, don't worry." Then they were in the lift, the doors closing behind them, as Jar Jar demanded; "Captain Typho, whatsa goin' on heren?"

….

Anakin wove frantically through the nighttime traffic high above the rooftops of Coruscant. Flashes of blaster fire some distance away caught his eye. "That's gotta be him." he decked the accelerator but by the time he got to the scene there was no blaster fire, no assassin droid, just a spread-eagled human body falling towards the brightly lighted canyons thousands of feet below. Anakin dove steeply, pulled up and Obi-Wan landed on the speeder's stern as neatly as one could please. He clambered breathlessly into the passenger seat.

"Master Kenobi, fancy meeting you here," Anakin greeted mockingly.

"What took you so long?" the other snapped.

"You know me, Obi-Wan, I had to find a speeder I really liked; mach 10 engines, open cockpit, totally cool paint job -"

"I am underwhelmed by your wit, Padawan." the Master's voice dripped icicles, "Where's Jacen?"

"Back with our Master I guess, he didn't catch up with me in time." As they spoke Anakin spotted a sleek closed speeder leaving with suspicious speed and gave chase; "That him?"

Obi-Wan's face went blank a moment as he searched the Force. "Yes!"

"Riiight!" Anakin hit the accelerator again.

Sensing he was being followed the assassin wove confusingly through traffic lanes, between buildings and through the interlaced beams of a half-finished skyscraper.

Obi-Wan clung white knuckled to the side of the speeder. "Careful! Hey! Easy!"

"Sorry, Master, I forgot you don't like flying." The speeder dropped a few feet, just enough to miss an oncoming transport.

"I don't like flying with _you_!"Obi-Wan retorted.

Anakin looked over at him. "Obi-Wan, you know I've been flying since before I could walk I'm very good -"

"Watch where you're going!" An oncoming stream of private speeders split to avoid them.

Anakin dropped out of the lane. "Sorry about that."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and inhaled a calming breath. "Just slow down," he said in carefully measured tones. Suddenly he opened his eyes and pointed. "There! There he goes."

The assassin's speeder ducked behind a line of freight transports. Anakin went under them, gaining steadily as the two vehicles banked right turns around tower spires and neon billboards. Attempting to elude his pursuer the assassin ducked into a tram tunnel. Anakin promptly followed.

"Wait! Don't go in there!" Obi-Wan gasped as the tunnel closed around them.

"Don't worry, Master, I know what I'm doing," Anakin assured him. They skimmed round a bend and right into their prey, accelerating frantically towards them with a tram filling the tunnel behind.

Anakin flipped the speeder upside down in a tight loop-over and raced out of the tunnel barely ahead of speeder and commuter tram.

Beyond speech Obi-Wan gave his companion a withering look.

"Okay, that was a mistake," Anakin conceded. The Assassin's speeder pulled alongside, a blaster barrel protruded from a side window, Obi-Wan ducked just in time.

"Oops!" Anakin hit the brakes, dropping behind and under their attacker, safe from blaster fire. The assassin dove steeply downward, skimmed low over the flat roofs of a continent sized industrial complex, forcing Anakin to fall behind again. "Right, this isn't working."

"No kidding." Obi-Wan said acidly. Their prey pulled further ahead, shooting through a quasi-tunnel of giant energy couplings topping a power plant. "Anakin, don't go through there!"

Ignoring him the younger Jedi accelerated right after the assassin, under and through the gigantic arcs of blue lightening leaping from coupling to coupling.

"How many times have I told you, stay away from power couplings!" Obi-Wan complained as they shot free.

Anakin grinned. "Yeah, but don't you just love that power-field tingle?"

"No actually." Obi-Wan scanned the skies. "There he goes!"

"This is getting old," Anakin muttered as they darted upward in pursuit. "We gotta get ahead of him somehow."

The assassin's speeder veered sharply, diving into a brilliantly lighted throughway for air traffic piercing a dense range of multi-spired towers. Anakin banked the other way looping around the buildings.

"What are you doing? You're going the wrong way."

Ani shook his head, eyes unfocused. "No I'm not. This is a shortcut." He blinked. "I think."

"You _think_?" Obi-Wan echoed, incredulously.

They hovered above the stream of traffic emerging from the throughway for long seconds.

Obi-Wan, grimly; "You've lost him."

Anakin, calmly; "No I haven't."

Obi-Wan, beginning to lose his temper; "He went completely the other way!"

Anakin, even more calmly; "We'll see."

Obi-Wan breathed deeply, regaining his composure. "Anakin, we've lost him. We should -"

"Excuse me, Master." Anakin said politely and vaulted over the side of the speeder - falling some five stories to land right on top of the assassin's speeder as it passed beneath them.

Looking after him Obi-Wan shook his head and muttered. "I hate it when he does that."

…..

Anakin clawed for a handhold on the sleek surface of the speeder as the wind tore at him. '_Okay, maybe this wasn't such a brilliant idea.'_ He worked his way painfully forward to the transparent canopy and looked in. For an instant it was a woman's face looking back at him with big dark eyes then abruptly, without warning, it shifted to something grey skinned and quite inhuman. '_A Changling!'_

The assassin whatever she or it was braked suddenly and Anakin nearly went flying, barely catching himself on the left prong of the forked front, dangling by his hands. '_Calm, remember, calm.' _He managed to swing over to the right prong and then work his way up on top again. The assassin, back in Human form, glared at him through the canopy as he ignited his sabre to cut his way in. She grabbed the blaster lying on the seat next to her and fired up at him. Anakin just managed to block the bolt, not easy at such close quarters, but the impact knocked the sabre from his hand.

'_Oh no, not again!'_

He shoved his hand through the hole in the canopy, grabbing the assassin's wrist as she tried for a second shot. It went wild, striking the control board and the speeder began to lose altitude, bucking wildly. Anakin hung on as the assassin fought for control but the impact as they hit the pavement of a pedestrian way sent him flying into a row of fuel drums.

Picking himself up Anakin looked around. Not one of Coruscant's more salubrious districts, a varigated crowd of panhandling undersiders, criminals, con-artists and slumming glitterati were lit by garish neon signs as they wandered along an esplanade of gritty entertainment clubs. A few glanced at Anakin but quickly looked away, not wanting to get involved. He pushed through the crowd towards the crashed speeder, saw the assassin climb out and gave chase, pushing and shoving people out of his way. His quarry darted through the door of one of the clubs and Anakin was about to follow when a hand fell on his arm stopping him in his tracks. He started to throw it off then realized it was Obi-Wan. "She went in there!" he panted.

"Patience," Obi-Wan answered, annoyingly unruffled. "Use the Force, Anakin, think. He went in there to hide, not run."

And even more annoyingly right, as usual. "Yes, Obi-Wan."

The older Jedi offered him his sabre. "I believe this is yours?"

"Yeah, thanks." Anakin tried to take it but Obi-Wan refused to let go of his end. _'Uh-oh, stand by for lecture.'_

"A Jedi's sabre is his most precious possession. He must keep it with him at all times," Obi-Wan scolded transfixing him with those blue eyes.

Anakin restrained an urge to roll his own. "Yes, Master."

"This weapon is your _life_!" the Master emphasized.

"I know. I'm sorry." Obi-Wan did have a point after all. "It was an accident."

"Jedi don't have 'accidents', Anakin. You must be more focused."

"I know, I know. Look could we leave the rest of the lesson for later? We've got an assassin to catch."

Shaking his head Obi-Wan let go of his end of the lightsabre and led the way into the club. "How does our Master put up with you?"

"He practiced on the Padawan he had before me." Anakin returned saucily.

His predecessor grinned wryly. "He did indeed. Poor Master, he always picks the difficult ones."

Anakin nodded agreement. Still, if he could manage to turn out even half as well as Obi-Wan had...

It seemed to be some kind of sports bar. Giant screens lined the walls showing various games and contests - including pod-racing! Anakin tore his eyes away and reminded himself to focus.

"Do you see him?"

He scanned the crowd watching the screens, drinking, laying bets or just talking sports talk. "No. But Obi-Wan, I think he's a she and that she's a changeling."

Blond eyebrows lifted. "In that case be extra careful." Obi-Wan nodded towards the crowd. "Go and find her."

Anakin blinked. "Me? What about you?"

"I," Obi-Wan replied coolly, "am going to get a drink," he quirked an eyebrow, "possibly more than one." And with that he headed purposefully for the bar leaving Anakin gaping after him.

'_What happened to his focus?' _ he wondered. The chase must have been harder on Obi-Wan's nerves than he, Anakin, had realized. _'I shouldn't tease him.'_ But flying was the only thing he did better than Obi-Wan and the temptation to show off was nearly irresistible.

Anakin circled the room, studying the polyglot patrons giving especial attention to the females, both Human and Alien. And they eyed him in return with an appreciation and invitation he'd only recently learned to recognize.

'_I wish Padme would look at me like that.' _Suddenly a familiar hum and flash of blue light spun him towards the bar. Pushing his way against the backwash of patrons he broke through into the empty space that had formed around Obi-Wan standing, sabre ignited, over a grey suited figure clutching at her arm.

'_I shoulda known!' _Anakin added aloud. "I can't take you anywhere, can I?"

Obi-Wan just flicked him a glance, extinguished his sabre and reached down to pull the assassin to her feet.

"Jedi business," Anakin announced to the staring crowd. "Go back to your drinks." The patrons turned uneasily away, self consciously resuming their activities as the two Jedi half carried their prisoner out a side door into a noisome alley.

"Do you know who you were trying to kill?" Obi-Wan asked, almost conversationally, as he examined the damaged arm.

"The Queen of Naboo." the woman mumbled.

"Who hired you?"

"It was just a job." she evaded.

Anakin wasn't having any of that. "Who hired you?" he repeated, and added with a touch of Force behind his voice. "Tell us!"

"It was a bounty hunter," she muttered unwillingly, "called -" she broke off with a little gasp. Her eyes glazed, then closed, and as Obi-Wan lowered her to the ground she changed, becoming the wrinkled grey non-Human Anakin had glimpsed in the speeder.

Instinctively the two Jedi glanced over their shoulders, just in time to see an armored form rocket away from a nearby rooftop.

They looked at each other, then Obi-Wan felt at the dead alien's neck and extracted a wicked looking multi-pointed object; "A toxic dart."

"Well it's a clue anyway," said Anakin.

….

Jamillia was right, Amidala reflected, it was just like their schooldays with the two of them and their handmaidens all piled onto the big bed in the Senator's quarters drinking hot Chakka, talking and giggling. By common consent they avoided the subject uppermost in all their minds, instead she and Jamillia entertained the handmaidens and tried to embarrass each other with stories of schoolgirl pranks and misdeeds and if the giggles had a slightly hysterical edge everybody pretended not to notice.

"- so our noble Queen batted her big brown eyes at Professor Kendarro and claimed she had no idea how six river ducks came to be in her closet," Jamillia finished with a flourish.

Amidala picked up a pillow and threw it at the Senator who ducked. It hit Rabe instead. Their laughter was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Dorme climbed off the bed and padded across the floor on bare feet to peek out. "General Binks, Captain Typho and the Jedi, your Highness," she reported.

"Let them in." Amidala ordered, sitting up straight and trying to smooth her hair a little. Dignity be damned - and with six other women present propriety was guaranteed.

The four men lined up at the foot of the big bed. Artoo rolled in after them just as Dorme was starting to shut the door. All four looked very serious, even grim. "Well Master Jedi?"

"Two Kouhun multipedes were introduced into your Highness' room by a specialized seeker droid who neutralized the tower's defensive field and cut through the window," Qui-Gon reported gravely.

"I take it these - things are poisonous," Amidala said as coolly as possible, trying to remember her brief glimpse before Anakin's blade had destroyed them.

"Extremely," Captain Typho, looked a little sick.

Artoo, over by the door, vented a long string of bleeps ending in a falling whistle. Amidala didn't understand the words but the apologetic note was unmistakable. "It wasn't your fault, Artoo."

"No indeed," the Master agreed. "Kouhuns have a natural camouflage ability that makes them very hard to spot. Artoo's motion sensor picked them up but when his visual sensor failed to confirm he assumed it was a malfunction."

"I see. So you mustn't blame yourself, Artoo." The little droid whistled gratefully.

"I don't understand," Jamillia said frowning, "why didn't our proximity alarms pick up this seeker droid or the neutralization of the field trigger an security alert?"

"Because the computer controlling security functions was instructed to ignore activity in that sector, my Lady." the young Jedi, Jacen, answered. His ears were slightly pink and he was careful not to look directly at any of the women on the bed.

Amidala felt a touch of amusement but rather more compunction. It hadn't occurred to her that their state of undress might be embarrassing to the Jedi. Master Jinn didn't seem bothered, but of course he was much older and more experienced. Good thing Anakin wasn't here to be embarrassed - or worse embarrass her.

It was Jamillia who caught the implication of what the boy had said. "Do you mean some member of my staff -?"

"Not at all, my Lady," Qui-Gon cut in firmly. "Obi-Wan and Anakin caught the assassin. Unfortunately she was killed by an accomplice before she could be questioned but she was a Changeling."

"And a Changeling could easily infiltrate our security here and on the landing platform," Typho put in grimly.

"You mustn't blame yourself either, Captain," Amidala said firmly. "Changelings are very rare nobody would expect such a thing."

Typho didn't look convinced. "Thank you, your Highness."

"I'm glad to hear Anakin and Obi-Wan are safe," Amidala continued. "Where are they now?"

"They have gone to the Temple to make their report to the Council," Qui-Gon answered. "Obi-Wan has other leads to pursue but Anakin will be returning here to escort your Highness to the Senate building."

"In another five hours," Eirtae murmured quietly into her mistress' ear.

Amidala took the hint. "Yes, we should all try to get a little more rest while we can. Good night, General, Captain Typho, Master Jedi."

The men bowed and withdrew. Artoo remained where he was, still following the orders Anakin had given him. The handmaidens fussed about for a few minutes collecting cups and seeing their mistresses settled, the senatorial bed was quite big enough for two. Then they withdrew to their own quarters which Rabe and Eirtae would share for the rest of the night, shutting off the lights as they left.

"Goodnight, Ammi."

"Goodnight, Milla." Amidala closed her eyes firmly, but she didn't sleep - and she doubted Jamillia did either.


	3. Of Senators And Disreputable Friends

Obi-Wan and Anakin stood side by side on the central rosette of the patterned marble floor of the Jedi Council chamber as the Masters mulled their report. "Track down this bounty hunter you must, Obi-Wan," Yoda said.

The young Master nodded. "The toxic dart should lead me to him once I've identified its provenance."

"Most importantly find out who he's working for," from Mace Windu.

Anakin spoke up. "Until Master Obi-Wan discovers who is behind these attempts on Queen Amidala's life she remains in danger."

"Yes, guarded she must be," Yoda agreed.

"Anakin, you and Master Qui-Gon will escort her Majesty back to Naboo and remain with her until the danger is passed," Mace instructed.

Anakin bowed, trying not to let his elation show, "Yes, my Master." It didn't matter he was transparent as glass to the Councilors.

"See through you we do." Yoda said drily. "Enjoy this assignment you will, I think." His expressive ears lowered as he added warningly, "but not too much!"

Anakin blushed, a little flustered. "No, Master. I mean yes, Master." But he sensed an almost indulgent amusement from the Councilors, even Yoda, rather than serious disapproval.

Mace smiled as he intoned the parting benediction, "May the Force be with you both."

Obi-Wan was less amused outside the Council chamber he gave Anakin one of his looks, half censorious half concerned.

He answered it; "Don't worry, Obi-Wan, I know what I have to do, for her sake as well as my own."

The young Master studied him a moment longer then nodded, satisfied. "Of course you do. I'm sorry, Ani, I shouldn't doubt your judgment. You've been well taught and I know you'll do what's right."

Jacen met them at the door to the Council's tower and gave Obi-Wan a limpidly innocent look. "Tell me, Master, was last night an example of the 'prudent and judicious conduct' appropriate to a Jedi?"

Anakin grinned and Obi-Wan laughed out loud. "No, Jacen, it was not." He put an arm around his Padawan's shoulders as they walked on. "I'm afraid your Master is still a young man and recklessness is one of his abiding faults. Learn from my mistakes, my young apprentice, don't imitate them."

"Believe me, Master, you don't have to worry about me jumping through any windows," his Padawan assured him. "Master Dooku will be leaving for another round of negotiations this morning and he'd like to see you before he goes."

"And I him," Obi-Wan took his arm from around his Padawan. "Meet me in Analysis, Jacen." He turned to Anakin. "Take care of our Master," he smiled, "and of yourself."

"I will," he promised. "Find out who's threatening Padme."

"I most certainly will," Obi-Wan promised in return and swept off down a branching corridor.

Anakin and Jacen continued on towards the speeder bays. "That's a nice little craft you picked up," Jacen observed.

Anakin winced. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to find out who it belongs to and get it back to him."

"That should be fun." Jacen glanced sidelong up at his friend. "You were right, she is beautiful."

Anakin smiled, a little sadly. "She surely is."

….

"I agree with your General Binks, the Spice Miners of Naboo could never have afforded the fees charged by such a uniquely gifted assassin, not to mention the bounty hunter acting as go-between." Yan Dooku and Obi-Wan walked side by side down yet another of the wide, airy Temple corridors.

"And the Separatists?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Have some very powerful and wealthy backers, including the Trade Federation." Dooku looked down at the younger Master. "And we know who is behind the Trade Federation."

"Or was ten years ago," Obi-Wan agreed, troubled. "Be careful, Master, if the Sith is behind the Separatist movement you will be in danger."

But the old Master shook his head. "It is too late for caution, Obi-Wan. The storm is almost upon us. We have no choice now but to take risks." His tone was grim. "I fear we are already playing the Sith's game."

"So do I," Obi-Wan agreed quietly. He extracted the toxic dark from a pouch on his belt. "Master, have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Dooku took it delicately between finger and thumb, studied it and shook his head. "I've seen darts similar to this one on planets beyond the Outer Rim but I'm afraid I can't tell you which world yours comes from."

"Hopefully Analysis will be able to narrow it down," Obi-Wan said taking the dart back.

Their corridor had become a gallery overlooking the central atrium for the mid-levels. The Master glanced over the railing. "I see my traveling companion is waiting for me." They descended a broad flight of stairs to meet her.

Sly Moore was an Umbaran and one of the Chancellor's most trusted aides. A very tall woman hairless, with finely modeled features, her pallid skin tinted with violet shadows. She was enfolded in the stiff cylinder of an Umbaran shadow cloak its shaggy surface looked dull grey to beings with a normal visual range but was richly colorful to the white, ultra-violet seeing eyes of an Umbaran.

"Madame Moore, I trust I haven't kept you waiting."

"Not at all, Master Dooku, I have only just arrived." her voice was soft, almost whispery, and as colorless as skin and cloak.

Dooku turned to Obi-Wan. "May the Force be with you, my young friend."

"And with you, Master.

The session with the Analysis droid proved disappointing. "Results negative." SP-4 announced as its screens went blank.

"I beg your pardon?" said Obi-Wan, startled.

"The subject item cannot be identified," the droid clarified, returning the dart to the Jedi. "Its design does not match any known culture."

"I see." Obi-Wan looked at the dart in his palm then back at the Analysis droid. "How do you explain that?"

"It must have been made by some individual to his own design," SP-4 returned with mechanical dignity. "I am sorry I cannot be of more assistance."

"That's quite all right. Thank you for your help."

"I thought Analysis could identify anything," Jacen said as soon as they were out of range of the droid's audio receptors.

His Master shook his head. "They've failed before, but I think I know somebody who might be better informed."

Jacen grinned. "You mean one of your disreputable friends."

"Dex is completely reformed and very respectable these days," Obi-Wan retorted.

"Just don't eat his cooking," Jacen muttered.

Dex's Diner was a small food station on the fringes of one of Coruscant's biggest freight ports. Its regulars were a tough, somewhat raucous lot but they got very quiet when two Jedi walked in.

A waitress droid rolled up to them on a unipod wheel, balancing dirty plates in sticklike arms. "Can I help ya?"

"I'm looking for Dex," The Master told her.

The atmosphere of the diner visibly congealed. "Waddya want him for?" the waitress droid demanded warily.

"He's not in trouble," Obi-Wan assured her. "It's personal."

Clearly unconvinced she rolled to the service hatch behind the counter, "Someone to see ya, honey, a Jedi by the looks of him."

A familiar, massive head poked through the hatch and lit up in a huge grin, "Obi-Wan and little Jace!"

"Hey, Dex," the Master smiled.

"Take a seat! Be right with you."

The waitress droid seemed to shrug. "You wanna a couple of cups of ardees?"

"Oh yes, please," Obi-Wan said politely.

A pretty blond girl in a very brief blue dress appeared at their booth moments later with a tray and two cups, closely followed by Dex Jettster himelf, a massive Besalisk beaming all over his froglike face and wrapping his four beefy arms enthusiastically but carefully around Obi-Wan, "Hey, ol' buddy!"

"Good to see you, Dex," the Master said returning the embrace. They sat down, the Besalisk barely managing to squeeze himself between table and seat.

Jacen took his cup of ardees over to a nearby stool at the counter.

"So, my friend, what can I do for ya?" Dex wanted to know.

"You can tell me what this is," Obi-Wan dropped the dart on the table between them.

"Well, whaddya know," Dex said softly, picking it up for a closer look.

"So, you're old friends of Dex's are ya?"

Startled Jacen looked across the counter to see the pretty blond waitress leaning opposite. "Uh, yeah." he stammered. "We ran into each other a few times out on the Rim."

"You really a Jedi?"

"That's right."

Behind him he heard Dex say; "This baby belongs to them cloners. What you got here is a Kamino sabredart."

"My name's Hermione, Hermione Bagwa," the girl said, pulling his attention back to her.

"Oh, uh - Jacen, Jacen Darklighter." he took her proffered hand awkwardly.

"Nice to meet ya." Big blue eyes looked full into his for a instant before sticky black lashes fluttered down to veil them. "This is awful exciting. I never thought I'd meet a real live Jedi Knight."

Jacen cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well you hang around Dex you're likely to meet all kinds of people."

"These funny little cuts on the side give it away," Dex was explaining to Obi-Wan. "Those Analysis droids you've got only focus on symbols -"

"Don't I know it," Hermione answered. "You wouldn't _believe _some of the people who come in here - but I guess you would, being a Jedi and all."

"We - uh - do meet all kinds," Jacen admitted. Lately most of them seemed to be young, female and attractive.

Dex: "- it's beyond the Outer Rim. I'd say about twelve parsecs outside the Rishi Maze. -"

Hermione dreamily: "It must be exciting, travelling all around the Republic, protecting the peace and rescuing people -"

"These Kaminoans keep to themselves. They're cloners, damned good ones too."

"I want to travel too someday. I'd like to go somewhere green and open, like Alderaan maybe. Have you been to Alderaan?"

"Uh, no, it's a very peaceful world, not much call for Jedi there," Jacen answered. "But I hear it's very beautiful."

Hermione sighed. "I've seen pictures. Miles and miles of grassland with no buildings at all, blue skies and not a flier in sight."

"Very different from Coruscant," Jacen agreed.

"I might not like it, once I was there." she mused. "All that openness could be kind of scary - and lonely too with no people around."

"They have cities," Jacen assured her, "not like here of course, little cities."

"You're wastin' your time, honey," Dex boomed suddenly right at Jacen's shoulder. "Jedi aren't allowed girlfriends."

"We're just talking." Jacen said hastily, blushing.

"That's right," Hermione agreed, "just a little friendly conversation, no cause for you to be implyin' things, Dex."

"Jacen." he turned gratefully to his Master. "Time to go," said Obi-Wan

"Yes, Master. Uh - nice talking to you, Hermione. I hope you get to Alderaan someday."

"Thanks. Nice talking to you too."

Jacen gave her a shaky smile and followed his Master out of the diner, gratefully but with a touch of regret too.

"How much of my conversation with Dex did you overhear?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Just that the dart comes from a world called Kamino and the inhabitants are cloners," Jacen answered. "I don't think I've ever heard of it before."

"Me either. Let's see what the archives have on it."

…

Over the years Anakin had visited the Senate building many times but only the outer offices. The last time he'd walked the curving corridors encircling the great rotunda it'd been as a small, shabby former slave with Tatooine sand in his shoes and a gangly adolescent Gungan by his side.

He turned his head to smile at Jar Jar. "Remember the last time we came this way together, General?"

Jar Jar nodded emphatically. "Mesa surely does. Yousa just so high," he held a hand about a meter above the floor, "and mesa not likin' this strange place at all."

"Well it's certainly not strange to you now, Representative Binks." Anakin said.

Jar Jar nodded again, ruefully this time. "When Queen suggestin' Gungans send associate representative everybody sayin' mesa's the one to go." He shrugged helplessly. "So what is mesa to do but say yes?"

"That's the problem with being a hero, Jar Jar, people expect a lot of you."

"Yousa can say that again!"

They were walking side by side at the end of a small procession with the Queen at its head flanked by Captain Typho and Qui-Gon. They were followed by Rabe, Eirtae and Sache, the latter newly returned from the hospital, all between files of the Chancellor's special Red Guards. Palpatine wasn't taking any chances with the safety of his former Queen's.

Anakin relaxed a little as they left the public corridors for the suite of offices behind the Naboo's senatorial box. Jamillia was waiting for them in an elegantly decorated conference room with two of the other leaders of the anti-militarist faction.

Amidala seated herself on the throne at the head of the long table, Qui-Gon and Anakin quietly taking up stations on either side of her.

"Your Majesty," Jamillia said formally, "may I present His Royal Highness Prince Bail Organa of Alderaan." A darkly handsome man, dressed with surprising simplicity considering his royal and senatorial rank, stepped forward to bow over the hand the Queen offered him. "And this is Senator Horox Rydder of the Anx." The tall non-Human bobbed his long, green, sickle shaped head.

"I am pleased to meet you both," said the Queen in the deep, Core-worlds accented voice she used for state occasions. "Senator Jamillia has told me how hard you have worked for our cause."

"We have done what we can, Your Majesty," Bail Organa said taking a seat at the table. "But we lose ground every time a new system joins the separatists."

"Loyal worlds afraid are," Senator Rydder hissed softly from his place on the other side of the table. "Fear attack by droid armies of Commerce Guilds."

"I understand their fear very well," Amidala assured him. "But to threaten force will almost certainly precipitate the very war we all wish to avoid."

"Indeed," Prince Organa agreed. "Your Majesty's victory over the Trade Federation ten years ago is well known and much admired. It is our hope that your voice will carry greater weight than ours."

"I share your hope. For all our sakes," said Amidala.

Anakin handed the Queen into the senatorial box, her bulky, cumbersome robes and heavy golden headress making assistance imperative. Senator Jarmillia's gown was only a little less voluminous with full, tiered skirts and a filmy veil falling down her back to the floor. Somehow they managed to wedge themselves side by side on the two chairs in the center of the box.

Jar Jar took one of the seats inset into the side of the box, Rabe and Eirtae shrouded in deep hooded indigo cloaks beside him. Corde, the senior of the Senator's handmaidens her face overshadowed by a lace veil, took the side seat nearest Jamillia. Anakin sat next to her his hood pulled well over his face with hands tucked into sleeves, and the Master took the last seat. Their visible presence was highly unusual - as a rule Jedi prefer not to call attention to themselves but in this case Master Qui-Gon considered it wise to make it very clear to the Senators and the people of Coruscant, including potential assassins, that Amidala was under the protection of the Order.

The military appropriations debate dragged on, as it had for days now, pre-empting all other business. Senator Ask Aak of Malastare had the floor. "- We must confront these rebels now, and we need an army to do so!"

Another pod edged forward containing the corpulent blue skinned Senator Orn Fre Taa, overdressed as usual, with his bevy of scantily clad Twi'lek 'aides' whispering and giggling in the seats behind him. "The Republic needs more security now!" He proclaimed, "before it comes to war."

Anakin shook his head in the shelter of his hood. Fear attracts the fearful. Padme was right, an army would guarantee war.

On the podium Palpatine was making the same point. "May I remind the Senator from Malastare that negotiations are still ongoing with the Separatists. Our objective is peace, not war."

Cheers and boos came from the senatorial boxes. _'They sound like a pod-racing crowd not a legislature,_' Anakin thought in disgust.

"Order, we shall have order!" Mas Amedda roared from the podium as the Chancellor settled wearily back in his chair. Gradually the noise died down. Palpatine looked across the vast gulf of the rotunda directly at the Naboo box.

Jamillia nodded to Jar Jar who rose and moved to the controls. The pod detached itself from the wall and floated towards the podium. Anakin felt the attention of the senate focus itself upon them, beating down like the Tatooine sun, and shrank into the protection of his hooded robe.

"The chair recognizes the Senator from Naboo," Mas Amedda announced, smiling and nodding to Jamillia as she rose and came forward.

"Chancellor Palpatine, distinguished members of the Senate, I ask your attention for Queen Amidala of the Naboo."

Cheers and applause exploded from all over the senate chamber as Jamillia and Jar Jar moved aside, bowing, and the Queen took their place. Her white painted face was regally expressionless within the frame of her massive crown, robes and jewels glittered in the subdued light of the great rotunda.

"It is with great pleasure the chair recognizes her Majesty of Naboo." Palpatine said as soon as he could make himself heard.

"Chancellor, honorable Senators." the Queen's voice rang out in the attentive silence. "My world of Naboo and I personally have suffered the miseries of war firsthand. I have no wish to repeat that experience.

"The Separatists are wrong to break with the Republic but none of us can deny they have many legitimate grievances. Surely it is better to address those grievances and welcome our erring brothers back into our union. Negotiation, not force is the path we must pursue.

"If this motion passes and an army is formed the separatists will regard it as an act of war. If we offer them violence they will show us violence in return! Many will lose their lives and all will suffer. The very foundations of the Republic will be threatened. Senators I beg you to vote against this security measure which can only lead to a war none of us wants."

Surrounded by echoing silence Amidala returned to her seat. _'She's made them think,'_ Anakin said to himself. But the spell passed quickly, by the time their pod docked back in its place the endless, pointless wrangling had begun again with Prince Organa struggling vainly to hold the floor against the verbal onslaughts of Senator Ask Aak and his supporters.

Suddenly Senator Orn Fre Taa's booming voice rose above them all. "I motion to defer the vote!"

"What?" Jamillia sprang indignantly to her feet, "Objection! There's already been too much delay in this matter!"

The Chancellor covered his eyes briefly in a gesture almost of despair then pushed himself to his feet. "A motion for deferral has been made. Unless the Senator will agree to withdraw the motion it must be put to vote."

"I do not withdraw it. I demand a vote!"

Jamillia turned her back on the rotunda to face the Queen. "That tears it, _another_ delay to 'consider our options'."

Amidala's eyes closed for a moment. "I've said what I came to say," she said quietly in Padme's voice. "Get me out of here."

Anakin was on his feet and at her side before he had a chance to think. "Come with me, Padme, I'll take you home."

She reached out to grip his hand tightly. "Thank you, Ani."

"You made a real impression in there," Anakin told her quietly as they moved through the Naboo suite and out into the public corridors trailed by the handmaidens with Master Qui-Gon, silent and watchful, bringing up the rear. "I don't know how you do it. I'd be scared speechless with all those eyes on me."

She managed a little smile, cracking the formality of the white mask. "The secret is to focus on just one person, in this case the Chancellor." Her smile faded. "He doesn't look well, Ani."

"I know," he sighed. "You see what he's up against."

"And poor Jamillia," she agreed. "Oh, Ani, do you really think I did any good in there?"

"I know you did, I could feel it. Who knows maybe this new delay is a good thing - maybe some minds will change."

"I hope so."

….

Amidala was lying on her bed, the same bed she'd been chased out of the night before, when she heard voices in the outer room and sat up. The door opened and Sache came in. "Senator Jamillia is back, your Highness, and Prince Bail is with her."

And that meant she'd have to dress up at least a little. "Give me the white wrap and the little silver diadem." she ordered. "I won't bother with the paint."

She entered the sitting room some ten minutes later dressed in a simple white draped gown with her hair piled high above a silver filigree bandeau. "I take it the motion passed?"

Jamillia nodded.

"Please don't be discouraged, Your Majesty," Bail Organa said gently. "Your speech made a strong impression on the senate - I believe it may have brought some of the waverers over to our side."

She smiled wryly. "You're trying to make me feel better, Your Highness."

"I am," he admitted. "But it's also the truth."

Amidala sat down on one of the couches. "How long will this 'deferral' be?"

"Three days," Jamillia answered.

Amidala bit her lip. "I had intended to wait for the vote -" she began.

"With your Majesty's permission," Master Qui-Gon broke in quietly. "Considering what has already happened I feel it would be unwise for you to remain on Coruscant."

"Absolutely," Jamillia agreed firmly. "Go home, Ammi, you'll be safe there."

"Go home in what?" Amidala asked. "My ship was destroyed."

"I had intended to offer your Majesty a Republic cruiser." Chancellor Palpatine stood in the entrance looking ill and discouraged despite his smile with a trio of Red Guards just visible behind him.

"Chancellor," Amidala got quickly to her feet and went to take him by the hand. "You're very generous but can you spare a cruiser in these difficult times?"

"Of course, the Republic has thousands of cruisers, your Majesty, but Naboo has only one Queen." He patted the hand holding his. "As a loyal former subject I want to see her safe back home."

"They'll accuse you of favoritism, Excellency," Anakin said lightly, almost teasingly.

"Let them!" the Chancellor's smile faded as he looked down at the Queen. "I feel somewhat responsible, Amidala. I did ask you to come after all, if I'd had the faintest idea any of this was going to happen -"

"You couldn't have known." She drew the Chancellor to sit by her on the couch, Bail and Jamillia took the one opposite one with the Jedi and handmaidens standing around them.

Palpatine looked up at Qui-Gon. "You will accompany her Majesty of course."

The Master nodded. "We have been ordered to stay with the Queen until her assailant is caught."

"Excellent. I must say that makes me feel better. Has young Master Kenobi made any progress?"

"The assassin responsible for the attack on the ship and last night's attempt was killed before she could be questioned -" Qui-Gon began.

The Chancellor cut in horrified; "Last night's attempt! Your Majesty, why wasn't I told?"

The Master's eyebrows rose slightly. "Master Kenobi and my Padawan Anakin Skywalker made a full report to the Jedi Council which should have been immediately transmitted to your Excellency's office."

"Perhaps it was," Palpatine was still visibly shaken. "I haven't been back to my office since last night." he grimaced. "And my aides are sometimes overprotective. They may have decided not to worry me. You say the assassin is dead?"

"Yes. But we have not yet established who she was working for. Obi-Wan suspects the Trade Federation."

"A personal vendetta? Yes that seems very possible." Palpatine's concerned frown deepened. "You must go back to Naboo, Your Majesty, you will be much less vulnerable there. Please accept my offer of a cruiser."

"Of course I will. You mustn't worry about me, Chancellor." Amidala smiled at Anakin and his Master. "I am very well protected."


	4. The Queen Goes Home

Obi-Wan switched off the scanner and turned to exchange a baffled look with his Padawan. "This is decidedly odd."

"Could Dex have been mistaken?" Jacen wondered. His Master just looked at him. "No of course he couldn't."

Obi-Wan swiveled in his chair and called to a stately, elderly Jedi passing by; "Madame Nu?"

The Chief Archivist turned, smiling, "Are you having a problem, Master Kenobi?"

"Yes I am. My Padawan and I are trying to find some information on a planet called Kamino but there doesn't seem to be anything in the archives. In fact it doesn't even show on the star-charts."

Thin eyebrows lifted. "How unusual." she leaned over Obi-Wan's shoulder to reactivate the screen. "Are you sure you have the right co-ordinates?"

"No co-ordinates," the young Master was forced to admit, "I was told it was some twelve parsecs south of the Rishi maze."

Jocasta Nu's eyebrows elevated even further. "Sounds like the sort of directions you'd get from a street tout," she said drily, "or an old prospector or rogue trader."

Jacen rolled his eyes. His Master smiled a little, "All three actually."

Madame Nu played with the touchpad for a few moments but finally shook her head. "I hate to say it, but it looks like the system you're looking for doesn't exist."

"Or perhaps the archives are incomplete," Obi-Wan dared to suggest.

The Archivist straightened, drawing herself up to her full, if unimpressive height. "Master Kenobi, if an item does not appear in our records it does not exist!" She turned and flounced away.

Obi-Wan pressed a control and extracted a small, glassy recording sphere from the reader. "Come, Jacen. There's one more person we can ask."

They found Master Yoda in one of the enclosed verandas off the upper atrium, teaching basic sabre discipline to a class of four year olds. Obi-Wan described their problem and the aged Master chuckled. "Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has, how embarrassing...how embarrassing. Liam, the shades." one of the children touched a control, dimming the windows. "An interesting puzzle," Yoda continued. "Gather, Younglings, around the map reader. Clear your minds and find Obi-Wan's wayward planet we will."

The young Master dropped his recording sphere into the reader and the darkened space around them lit up with stars and nebulae drawing whispers of delight from the children. Obi-Wan walked through the hologram to point to a spot just below the irregular nebula known as the Rishi Maze. "This is where it ought to be - but it isn't," he looked significantly at Yoda. "Gravity is pulling all the stars in this area towards this spot. There should be a star here, but there isn't."

"Most interesting," Yoda mused. "Gravity silhouette remains but the star and all its planets disappeared, they have. How can this be?" he looked at his little pupils: "A thought, anyone?"

A small boy piped up promptly; "Master, because somebody erased it from the archive memory."

"If the planet blew up the gravity would go away," a little girl explained seriously to Obi-Wan.

Yoda chuckled delightedly. "Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. The Padawan is right. Go to the center of gravity's pull, and find your planet you will."

Obi-Wan and Jacen both stared at him, wondering if the Ancient Master really understood the enormity of what he was saying. Obi-Wan called the record sphere back to his hand, extinguishing the stars, and the two Masters moved to join Jacen in the entrance to the veranda. With his back to the children Yoda allowed his face to fall into graver lines. Oh yes, he understood the implications. But there was no point in frightening the younglings.

"Master Yoda, who could have erased the information from the archives," Obi-Wan asked softly. "That's supposed to be impossible, isn't it?"

"Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is," the Old Master agreed. "Only a Jedi could have erased those files, but who and why, harder to answer, meditate on this I will. May the Force be with you."

Master and Padawan bowed as Yoda turned back to his small charges.

…..

"So somebody's been meddling with our records," Master Qui-Gon said pensively, "disturbing indeed."

"The assassin was a shape changer," Anakin reminded them, "could she have been responsible?"

"Inside the Temple itself?" Obi-Wan asked. "It would take more than a change of form to fool a Jedi."

"Which means it had to be one of us," Jacen swallowed, he knew the others were thinking it too but somebody had to say it out loud. "A fallen Jedi, allied with the Sith Master?"

"We must not jump to conclusions," Qui-Gon said, firm and calm. "We must be patient and trust in the Force. In Its own time It will tell us what we need to know."

The rustle of elaborate gowns and murmur of feminine voices drew the four Jedi from the balcony back into the main room of the Queen's suite. Amidala was dressed in a black travelling costume glittering with gold and colored silk appliques, a tall filigreed tiara crowning her cowled head. She was followed by her three handmaidens in voluminous flame colored hooded cloaks. Senator Jamillia, in an embroidered violet gown, rose from the sofa as her Queen entered and her own three handmaidens stood waiting by the door, heavily veiled.

The Queen saw Obi-Wan, hesitated, then moved towards him. "Master Kenobi, have you further news for me?"

Startled Jacen looked at Anakin who pursed his lips and shook his head slightly.

Obi-Wan bowed. "Very little I'm afraid, Your Majesty. It seems our bounty hunter is somehow connected with a world called Kamino. I hope to pick up his trail there."

The Queen nodded graciously. "I see. I thank you for your efforts, Master Kenobi."

"It is my pleasure, Your Majesty."

"We mustn't keep the Chancellor's cruiser waiting, your Highness," Jamillia hinted gently.

"Of course, I am ready."

Queen and Senator exchanged a formal embrace on the landing platform, under the watchful eyes of Captian Typho's security troops and a dozen of the Chancellor's Red Guards. "I hope you have a safe journey home, your Highness." Jamillia said.

"I'm sure I will, Senator, don't be concerned." Amidala turned away, walking up the ramp between the files of Red Guards followed by her three handmaidens and two Jedi protectors. The Senator's party, including Obi-Wan and Jacen, watched the cruiser lift off and sail smoothly upward until it was out of sight.

Back in the closed transport one of the attendant handmaidens threw back her cloudy grey veils revealing the delicate features of Queen Amidala. "If anything happens to Sache I will never forgive myself!"

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Padme." Obi-Wan said kindly.

"She's on a Republic cruiser surrounded by the Chancellor's own guards, with Master Qui-Gon Jinn to watch over her. Don't worry about her, Padme."

"Ani?" the Queen turned to stare incredulously at the young Jedi. "How did you get off the cruiser without everybody seeing you?"

He shrugged casually. "Hey, I'm a Jedi Knight. That's what we do."

Obi-Wan snorted gently but restrained himself. Amidala flopped disconsolately into a seat. "If Sache's going to be so safe, why am I here instead of on the cruiser with her?"

"A simple precaution for everybody's peace of mind, Ma'am," Obi-Wan replied soothingly.

Jamillia leaned over to pat her friend's knee. "Humor us, Ammi, we've already had two frights too many."

The Senator's transport swooped away from the landing platform, weaving through the shining towers of upper Coruscant before diving down to skim over the industrial flats surrounding the commercial port to moor itself near the dock of a massive old freighter roughly adapted to carry refugees trying to escape the increasing turmoil engulfing the Republic. Beautiful, under-populated Naboo, enriched by its new Spice wealth, was one of the few worlds to welcome the influx.

Amidala threw off her veils underneath she wore the shapeless, embroidered gown of a young matron from the Thousand Moons system. Verse helped her arrange a lace mantilla over a tall comb. "Keep an eye on Sabe and Yane for me, Milla," she instructed. "And don't let them get on a ship until the medics say they're well enough to travel."

"I will." Jamillia promised.

"And watch yourself, if whoever's behind this is trying to end opposition to the military bill you could be a target too."

"Now don't you start worrying about me, Ammi," the Senator scolded. "I'm very well protected."

"I know." Amidala smiled at Typho. "Thank you for all your efforts, Captain. And forgive me for making your job harder. I'm afraid I'm not always as considerate as I could be."

"It's been an honor to serve your Highness." he replied formally then grinned a little, "If a trying one. Be safe, Ma'am."

"I will be," she laughed up at Anakin, who'd shed his robe to reveal the embroidered vest worn by men of the Thousand Moons. "After all I have a Jedi Knight to defend me."

"I will get to the bottom of this plot quickly, Padme." Obi-Wan promised.

"I'm sure you will." She smiled again; "I could almost feel sorry for that bounty hunter - and the Trade Federation!" then sobered. "You will be careful, won't you?"

"I assure your Majesty I am known for my caution and prudence."

"Except for occasional abberations like jumping out of hundred story windows." said Anakin. He hugged the Master and then Jacen. "May the Force be with you both."

"And with you, my young friend," Obi-Wan returned.

"We better get going, Padme, they won't hold the ship for us." Anakin picked up a couple of luggage cases, Amidala a third, and they stepped out of the transport.

The noise of the spaceport broke over them like a wave. Amidala flinched involuntarily and Anakin looked at her in concern. "I guess I'm a little nervous." she apologized. "I'm not used to being on my own, no guards, no handmaidens..."

"You got me," he pointed out "and Artoo as well."

She glanced back at the little droid trailing them. "You're sure he won't attract attention?"

"Astromechs are very common, even refugees from the Thousand Moons might own one."

They joined the crowd moving slowly towards the starfreighter's gaping entry ports; Men, women and many children, dressed in the styles of a dozen systems and loaded down with their worldly goods  
in boxes and bales. Amidala saw a number of droids sprinkled through the crowd. Anakin was right, Artoo wouldn't attract notice.

When they finally reached the entry port they were greeted by a bored rating holding a data pad; "Names?"

"Anakin and Padme Lars."

He glanced down his list, "Right cabin 0586 D deck. Welcome aboard."

Amidala opened the door to cabin 0586-D and found herself looking into the startled face of a young woman about her own age. "Oh! I'm sorry, I must have the wrong cabin." she started to close the door, Anakin keyed it open again.

"No you don't, it's a four way cabin." He continued to the couple already occupying the room. "Anakin Lars and this is my wife Padme."

"Jadis Kloome." said the young woman, "And this is my husband Piter." She was small, plump and pretty with curling brown hair, wrapped in layers of colorful shawls. Her husband was taller, fair  
haired like Anakin with worried hazel eyes.

A chirping sound came from a bundle on one of the bunks. "Oh!" said Padme, "a baby!"

"She's very quiet." the mother assured her hastily.

Padme laughed, "Don't worry my sisters have half a dozen children between them. I'm used to babies." Jadis relaxed a little. "What's her name?"

"It's Isell."

"Hello, Isell. I'm Padme," she said bending over and smiling into the scrunched little face. "We're going to be travelling companions." Maybe she was going to enjoy this trip after all.

…..

Obi-Wan walked slowly down the exercise gallery with Sabe beside him supporting herself on two sticks. She'd been on his mind ever since he'd heard about her injuries. Finally he'd given in to the  
need to see for himself how she was. Besides, as a royal bodyguard she had the right to hear what he had learned.

"The Trade Federation again." she was saying, shaking her head. "I suppose that makes more sense than the miners." Sabe's resemblance to Amidala was quite superficial, a matter of size and coloring. She was much more beautiful than her Queen. Obi-Wan pulled his eyes away with an effort. "I wish we'd never discovered those Spice veins on our moons," she continued. "They've brought us nothing but trouble."

"Why are the miners discontented?" Obi-Wan asked.

"That's just it, there is no reason!" she exploded. "Working conditions are good. Our safety standards are the highest in the Republic. The pay scale is better than Kessel's. Granted living conditions are a little crude but I wouldn't expect wildcat miners and prospectors to mind that."

"Neither would I," Obi-Wan agreed thoughtfully. He risked a sidelong glance at her. "The Queen believes they are being manipulated by the Separatists, or rather whoever's behind the Separatists."

"The Trade Federation," said Sabe, "or the Sith?"

"That is what we all fear," he admitted. They reached the end of the gallery, turned and started back up. "I'm sorry to have missed Yane," Obi-Wan said, not altogether honestly, trying to turn the subject. Worry wouldn't help Sabe's convelescance.

She smiled. "Yane will be sorry too, but the poor thing's stuck in a bacta tank," the smile became a grimace. "Have you ever had bacta treatment, Obi-Wan?"

"Once or twice," he admitted, "not very pleasant."

She laughed. "Now there's a Jedi understatement for you. Its horrible stuff and I have two more sessions scheduled!"

"You have my sympathies," he assured her.

"I shouldn't complain." she smiled up at him. "I know it's taken weeks off our recovery time. They tell me there'll be no scarring at all."

"It's miraculous stuff," Obi-Wan agreed, "as good as a Jedi healer and far more available."

"If only it weren't so _gooey_!" she complained, and it was his turn to laugh.

They reached the door at the upper end of the gallery and turned to face each other. "Thank you for coming, Obi-Wan, it's good to hear what's really been happening. The Queen and Senator Jamillia  
left a few things out - not wanting to worry us of course."

"In my experience you worry all the more when you suspect things are being kept from you," he answered.

"It's always best to know the truth," Sabe agreed. "However bad that may be." she gave him a smooth warm hand. "Good luck, Obi-Wan, and be careful."

"I am always careful." he smiled.

And she gave a little snort of laughter. "From what I saw on Naboo, you Jedi don't know the meaning of the word!"

"- Master?"

Obi-Wan blinked back to the present, "Yes, Jacen?"

"I said we have clearance for high orbit."

"Excellent. We'll rendevous with our booster ring then set course for Kamino."

"Yes, Master."

Obi-Wan braced himself against the mild acceleration as the wedge shaped two man fighter began its climb towards space. Far from curing his obsession the visit to Sabe had increased it. The image of her face, the sound of her voice kept intruding, ruining his focus, it was ridiculous. He was far too old to feel like this! He composed himself for meditation. _'I will master this emotion. I will concentrate on my duty and my mission!'_ Going to see Sabe had been a mistake. One he would not repeat.

….

Anakin entered their cabin to find Padme alone, sitting on a bunk with Isell in her lap, the baby gurgling happily as she chewed on the end of the long brown braid falling over Padme's shoulder.  
"You really do know about babies." He said with a note of surprise.

"I'll have you know I'm a very experienced aunt, four nieces and two nephews. She's a little darling isn't she?" Padme glanced up at Anakin and a mischievous glint came into her eye. "Want to hold her?"

He stepped back, visibly alarmed."I don't think so."

"Oh come, on. It's easy, put out your arms."

"I don't know anything about babies," Anakin protested, obeying with reluctance.

"There's nothing to it. Just put your hand under her little head here, and support the rest of her body with your arm so." Padme stepped back and laughed out loud at the look of barely contained panic on his face. "Brave Jedi Knight scared to death of a little bitty baby!"

Isell made an indignant sound, not quite a cry, obviously not appreciating the change. Anakin gave Padme a defiant look and made an effort to relax, reaching out with the Force to sooth the small mind.

"No fair using your Jedi mindtricks!"

"It won't hurt her." he promised and smiled uncertainly. "What an odd little mind. Nothing but sensations and emotions, but she's got very strong likes and dislikes. She likes you."

"And I like her, don't I sweetheart?" Padme told the baby.

The cabin door opened and Jadis came in, followed by Piter. "Thanks for watching her, Padme. You and Anakin better hurry and get something to eat before they close the mess."

The mess hall was uninviting all too obviously an empty cargo hold, dotted with little clusters of emigrants at makeshift tables or picnicking on the deck. Anakin and Padme, trailed by Artoo, stood  
in line for their rations of mush and bread then found themselves an empty table.

"Have you heard from your mother at all since leaving Tatooine?" Padme asked suddenly.

Anakin grinned. "Better than that, I've seen her. Master and I stopped by Tatooine on our way back to Coruscant."

"She's well then?"

"Very well, a month or so after we left Watto sold her to a moisture farmer named Cleigg Lars. He fell in love with her, freed her and married her."

Padme smiled delighted; "Oh, how lovely. I'm so glad."

"Me too, Cleigg's a good man. He's got a son, Owen, not much older than me and he's just crazy about Mom too. Owen's going to be married soon to a nice girl from Anchorhead which will be good for Mom she could use another woman's help around the place." He paused. "I'm happy for her really I am she's got a great life. But -"

"You wish you could be part of it." Padme finished sympathetically.

"Yeah." he sighed. "But that's just not possible."

R2D2 rolled up to their table and offered Padme an extra slice of bread. "Why thank you, Artoo." She looked back at Anakin. "It must be difficult having sworn your life to the Jedi, not being able  
to visit the places you like, or do the things you like..."

"Or be with the people I love," he finished for her.

"Are you allowed to love? I thought that was forbidden to a Jedi." _'Padme Amidala, you're flirting! Stop it at once!'_

Blue eyes locked with brown. "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life, so you might say we're encouraged to love."

"You've changed so much," was all she could think of to say, gazing mesmerized into those azure depths.

"You haven't changed a bit," he answered. "You're exactly the way I remember you."

"And how do you remember me?" _'I said stop it! What are you thinking, Amidala?'_

"As perfect," he answered, those compelling eyes still locked on hers, "absolutely perfect in every way."

A laugh burbled out of her. "Oh, Ani, I'm not that. Just ask Sabe or Rabe or Governor Bibble or -" he put a hand over hers, stopping the list of names.

"To me you are perfect." he said. And she could think of no reply.


	5. A Strange Lead And Different Kinds Of Da...

Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan must have made quite an impression on the Neimoidians.

"Master Dooku is an accredited representative of the Supreme Chancellor himself," Sly Moore told the Viceroy's hologram image, an unaccustomed edge of exasperation in her usually expressionless voice.

Nute Gunray's answer held a distinct note of hysteria; "I will not have a Jedi here!"

Dooku decided it was time to take a hand and stepped into pickup range. "I understand your concerns, Viceroy, and I am willing to submit to any security measures you think necessary." Gunray blinked at him uncertainly as Dooku did his best to look harmless and elderly.

"We are ambassadors from the Supreme Chancellor," Sly Moore reminded him. "It will raise suspicions in the Senate if you refuse to receive us."

Neimoidians are notably lacking in intestinal fortitude, the subtle threat worked. "You will leave your weapon on the cruiser," the Viceroy told Dooku.

He bowed slightly: "Of course."

"And you will be searched and restrained upon landing."

Sly Moore started to protest but Dooku cut her off with a sharp gesture: "As you wish."

"This is intolerable," she said after the hologram vanished.

"Not at all," Dooku replied calmly. "I am going down there to negotiate, not to fight."

"It is an insult to the Supreme Chancellor," she fretted.

"I can't say I like it either, sir," the captain of the cruiser spoke up from the doorway of the conference room. "If something happens down there you'll be completely helpless."

Not quite. Dooku took his lightsabre from his belt and handed it to the captain along with an innocent look, one eyebrow slightly arched. "Why should anything happen?"

"The Neimoidians tried to kill the last Jedi sent to deal with them," the captain pointed out. "I suspect treachery, sir."

"Oh so do I Captain Dodonna, so do I," Dooku agreed with a touch almost of amusement.

"Then I'm going down there with you."

Dooku hesitated, glancing at Sly Moore. There was her safety to be considered too. "Very well, Captain. Perhaps the presence of a Republic officer will be some protection."

…

Jan Dodonna gave the Master a sharp look as he rejoined his companions trailed by battle droids with weapons leveled. He looked unruffled as ever, hands folded out of sight in the voluminous sleeves of his dark robe, "Are you all right, sir?"

"Of course," Dooku gave him a smile meant to be reassuring, it wasn't. Under that practiced Jedi serenity was a glint of something else. A reckless near wildness that reminded Dodonna of the daredevil fighter pilots he'd known. The old Jedi Master was walking into danger and he knew it, even welcomed it. Sly Moore said nothing, looking straight ahead of her, face set in a mask of stony disapproval.

A nervous Protocol droid showed them to a luxuriously appointed meeting room and offered beverages. Dooku stretched out a hand to accept a cup and Dodonna saw the binders on his wrists. "Sir!" he started to his feet in furious alarm only to be nailed by a pair of dark, piercing eyes.

"I know what I am doing, Captain!" The fierce gaze softened slightly. "Don't worry about me."

Dodonna subsided reluctantly. He didn't like this one bit but watching Dooku calmly sipping his tea the captain recalled his first instinctive reaction upon meeting the Jedi Master. This was a dangerous man, even disarmed, bound and under the guns of five battledroids.

…

To call Kamino a water planet would be to indulge in Jedi-like understatement. Not only was it covered from pole to pole by a worldwide ocean but the atmosphere was churned by a perpetual monsoon.  
"We should have brought a submarine, not a spaceship!" Jacen told his Master struggling to hold the fighter steady against hurricane force gusts.

"A little rain never hurt anyone, Padawan," Obi-Wan replied then glanced up at the streaming canopy. "Of course no one could call this a 'little' rain."

Their ultimate destination was sleek white city standing on stilts high above the wind whipped waters. Jacen set down on one of the landing platforms ringing the city and regretfully popped the canopy, climbing out into the driving rain.

Their Astrodroid whistled a complaint and Jacen patted its dome consolingly. "I don't think R4 likes it here," he called to his Master.

"He'll be all right, he was designed to withstand far worse than this."

"But that doesn't mean he has to like it," Jacen muttered and the droid bleeped agreement.

The lucent doors into the city were only a few dozen feet away but both Jedi were thoroughly soaked by the time they got through them - and found themselves confronted by a tall, willowy, pallid being who smiled welcomingly down upon them. "Master Jedi, so good to see you." the genuine warmth of her welcome was unmistakable - and slightly bewildering. "The Prime Minister has been expecting you."

"I'm expected?" Obi-Wan asked cautiously.

"Of course," the being fluted. "He is anxious to meet you. After all these years we were afraid you weren't coming. Now, please, this way."

The two Jedi exchanged puzzled looks behind their guide's back and followed.

The passage was walled, floored and ceilinged in luminous white. At the end of it they found a circular white chamber with a second Kaminoan sitting in a floating white chair in its center.

"May I present, Lama Su, Prime Minister of Kamino." their guide said formally. "And this is Master Jedi -?"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." the Master supplied quickly with a bow. "My Padawan apprentice Jacen Darklighter." Jacen bowed.

A second chair lowered itself and Lama Su waved Obi-Wan into it. Jacen took up his usual stance beside his Master and their guide, apparently some sort of aid, moved to stand next to the Prime Minister. "You will be delighted to hear we are on schedule." Lama Su told them. "Two hundred thousand units are ready, with another million well on the way."

Jacen struggled to maintain an impassive front. Even Master Obi-Wan seemed ever so slightly taken aback. "That is...good news." he said cautiously.

The Kaminoan either didn't notice their reactions or failed to interpret them correctly. "Please tell your Master Sifo-Dyas that we have every confidence his order with be met on time and in full. He is well I hope?"

Sifo-Dyas? Jacen tried to place the name. Obi-Wan seemed to be having trouble with it too. "I'm sorry, Master -?"

"Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas," now the Kaminoan shared their puzzlement. "He's still a leading member of the Jedi Council, is he not?"

"Master Sifo-Dyas was killed almost ten years ago," Obi-Wan answered.

Jacen frowned a little. Surely it had been longer ago than that. Hadn't Ki-Adi Mundi replaced him on the Council?

The Prime Minister blinked his huge black eyes. "Oh, I am sorry to hear that." he seemed genuinely distressed. "But I'm sure he would have been proud of the army we've built for him."

Army! Jacen shot his Master a sidelong look. Even Obi-Wan was having trouble keeping his countenance, "The army?"

"Yes, a clone army." Lama Su answered, serenely unruffled, possibly putting their reactions down to an insufficient briefing. "And I must say one of the finest we've ever created."

"Tell me, Prime Minister," Obi-Wan probed, "when my Master first contacted you about the army, did he say who it was for?"

"Of course he did. This army is for the Republic."

Master and Padawan exchanged another look. This was incredible and given the erasure of all information about Kamino from the Jedi records, highly disturbing.

"But of course you must be anxious to inspect the units for yourself."

"That's why we're here." Obi-Wan replied, in a tone that wouldn't have fooled a child but apparently did fool the Kaminoans. Both Lama Su and his aide seemed serenely unaware that anything might be wrong.

….

Yan Dooku sipped his tea, ignoring the diplomatic inanities passing between Sly Moore and the Viceroy. His Padawan's Padawan would no doubt disapprove of what he intended to do, the contrast between Obi-Wan's vocal caution and reckless actions always amused Dooku, but the time for timid half measures was long past. He looked speculatively at Gunray, no not yet. He took another sip from his cup and went on thinking about Obi-Wan. They were very much alike, his Padawan's Padawan and himself; intense, driven perfectionists, impatient of weakness and folly, inherently ruthless...all potentially dangerous traits. Qui-Gon Jinn had been good for them both. Dooku didn't like to think what he might have become without his Padawan's gentle, tempering influence. He'd learned far more than he'd taught, though Qui-Gon would never believe it. Dooku's role had been to keep the massive machinery of the Order from crushing the light and life out of his maverick apprentice until he was old enough and strong enough and secure enough in his faith to stand alone.

Qui-Gon had tried to do the same for Obi-Wan and to a degree he had succeeded. But unlike his Master and his Master's Master Obi-Wan was no rebel. He accepted the Council's Code and had the strength and the will to crush himself into the Jedi mold. So far the boy still had his renegade side but how long that would last now he was constantly under the Council's eye...

Certainly he'd chosen himself a completely conventional Padawan. Not that there was anything wrong with young Jacen. He would make a fine rank-and-file Jedi, the backbone of the Order. But Obi-Wan had the potential to be so much more, if only he'd learn to listen to himself instead of to the Masters.

Dooku wondered bleakly how many promising, conscientious youngsters the Council had ruined by forcing them into its mold, rather than leaving them free to become the Jedi they'd been born to be. Perhaps mercifully he'd never know. But he was very sure he didn't want to see that happen to Obi-Wan, and not just because of the bitter waste of a potentially great Jedi.

Gunray's voice rose shrilly in a foolish rant about scheming queens and homicidal Jedi poisoning the Senate's mind against the Trade Federation. _'Now'_ Dooku thought, and sliced through the verbiage with a question as edged as his light sabre. "And what of your Sith Master?"

Gunray froze, outrage melting into shock and then into fear, "Sith? We accepted the services of one who claimed to be a Sithlord, but of course we knew it was not true, the Sith were all destroyed by the Jedi long ago."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi killed a Sith on Naboo ten years ago." Dooku reminded the Viceroy, the deep piled velvet of his voice freighted with gentle menace. "But there are always two, Master and Apprentice. The Master lives, he controls you and your Federation even now."

"Nonsense," Gunray stammered, looking desperately at Sly Moore, "superstitious Jedi nonsense! You slander us. The Trade Federation was loyal to the Republic until it turned against us! We would never have allied with its enemies!"

"You fool yourself, Viceroy. You are not an ally but a slave, the Sith will use you and then destroy you. Such is their way." But Dooku's mind was no longer on what he was saying. He had expected to learn much from Gunray - but not this! He was all but reeling with the shock of it, and grimly grateful for the decades of Jedi discipline that enabled him to hide his state from his opponent - though only just.

"I will not stay here to be insulted," Gunray told Sly Moore hysterically. "This negotiation is ended!" He scuttled out of the room without dignity, followed by his confused and frightened retinue and the five battle droids.

The Chancellor's Aide turned to Dooku, a hint of displeasure on her cold face. "Really, Master Jedi, what did you expect to accomplish with such charges?"

Dooku returned her gaze levelly, his dark eyes burning laser-like into her flat, expressionless white ones. "Confirmation of what I already suspected, that the Separatists are controlled by the Sith."

She frowned. "You cannot be certain of that."

"Oh but I can. Gunray's fear revealed the truth."

A hint of perturbation crossed the Umbaran's cold, pale face. More than a hint was clearly visible on Captain Dodonna's. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Yes," the Master agreed calmly. "Gunray's next move will be to destroy us, as he tried to destroy Master Jinn and Jedi Kenobi ten years ago."

"Impossible!" Sly Moore seemed genuinely taken aback. "He wouldn't dare!"

"He has no choice." Dooku returned flatly then nailed Dodonna with his most intense darkling stare. "This news _must _get back to the Chancellor and the Senate, Captain. They must know further negotiations are useless. The Separatists are being used by the Sith in a covert attack upon the Republic."

Dazed, but not at all disbelieving, Dodonna nodded. "Yes sir." He looked at the door.

The Master shook his head. "It will be locked and guarded. We cannot escape that way." Rising he moved swiftly to the panoramic window dominating the far wall of the conference room and looked out. "There is a balcony just one floor below us."

"That's three inch transparisteel, Master," Dodonna said, "we'll never break through -"

Dooku gathered the Force and flung it at the window. Transparisteel shattered like the thinnest and most fragile of glass, tiny shards raining down onto the balconies below; "Quickly, Captain!"

Dodonna closed his mouth and hustled a bewildered Sly Moore to the now gaping window then handed her off to the Master before making the leap down to the lower balcony. He rolled to his feet and looked up. "Jump, Madame Moore, I'll catch you."

"No - this is ridiculous. Master Dooku -" she broke off with a gasp as the old Master lifted her off her feet and unceremoniously dropped her into Dodonna's arms just as the door behind him burst open.

"Go! I'll hold them off."

Dodonna hesitated only a fraction of a second then threw Dooku a salute and vanished into the building dragging the still protesting Sly Moore after him.

The Master whirled to greet a troop of battle droids - three ranks of five their weapons leveled - with a smile that would have frozen any sentient being with an IQ of more than one digit in its tracks.

Surprisingly it seemed to have a similar effect on the droids. They hesitated, presumably awaiting orders. Dooku raised his eyes to the elaborate ceiling studded with faceted iridite crystals the size of his head and sharply pointed. An almost gentle touch of the Force brought them crashing down upon the droids, crushing metal skulls and smashing blasters and the hands holding them from metal bodies.

As iridescent dust settled over the wreckage Dooku glanced briefly down at his wrists and the binders clattered to the floor. Then stepping carefully around the litter of broken metal and crystal he went through the open doors of the conference room into the lofty, pillared hall beyond.

Two hours ago it had been crowded with Neimoidians and their drone attendants, now it was completely empty which was all to the good. The image of a serious, sixteen year old Qui-Gon flashed briefly before Dooku's mental eye saying with just a touch of reproach; 'We don't want to hurt anyone, do we Master?'

'_No Qui-Gon I don't'_ Dooku silently answered the memory. _'The Viceroy has doomed his people by throwing their lot in with the Sith and I have no wish to add one iota to what they will suffer as a result. But I must cover Dodonna's escape.' _A pair of destroyer droids rolled around the corner. The Master raised a hand, almost casually, and one of the great pillars dissolved into its constituent drums, crushing the droidekas beneath their weight. _'The best way to keep Gunray's attention is to threaten him directly.' _Dooku told himself, and headed up the hall.

A quartet of a newer and more massive type of battle droid were drawn up in front of the battery of lifts to the Nemoidian elite's private quarters in the tower pinacles of the Viceregal palace. At their first glimpse of Dooku they opened fire. The old Jedi Master caught the red energy bolts in his bare hands, formed them into a globe and cast it back into the super battle droids' teeth. The two centermost exploded, blasting the outer pair flat. Dooku reeled and struggled to maintain his focus, trying to ignore the pain and the smell of his own burned flesh. He turned at the thunder of metal feet. A dozen ranks of conventional battle droids were pounding towards him, weapons rising to firing position. The soaring windows latticed in precious metals and inset with gemstone panes, lighting the great lobby suddenly imploded inward, spraying the oncoming droids with sharp edged shards like a flight of glistening spears.

'_A pity, they were beautiful. Qui-Gon would not approve' _Dooku thought vaguely, then with a touch of icy clarity: _'I am losing control.' _ The Force, loosened as his focus wavered, spiraled outward sweeping up the droid wreckage in a whirlwind of steel, ripping away the lift-shafts' shells and the ornate stone and metal fretwork decorating the walls. Fluted crystal columns toppled like dominoes, smashing into glittering fragments, and high above the rotunda dome cracked and began to crumble. Dooku, at the center of it all, drained and no longer able to keep his feet, could only hope, as darkness took him, that Dodonna was clear for he could do no more.

….

The first thing Amidala saw as she got off the Speeder bus was Master Jinn standing, tall and still like a great tree, waiting for them. Anakin saw him too and broke into a broad grin of pleasure and relief. _'He's been more worried than he let me see,'_ Amidala realized. It bothered her that he could hide his feelings so effectively from her - which was silly. He was a Jedi Knight, controlling emotion was central to his training. But he'd been such an open and ingenuous little boy. Somehow it hurt to think of him becoming reserved and impenetrable like his Master or Obi-Wan.

Qui-Gon gave her a small Jedi smile, but his eyes were warm and held a teasing glint. "Did you enjoy your journey, 'young handmaiden'?"

She smiled back. "Yes I did. The accommodations weren't much but the company was excellent."

"This is new," Anakin observed as they began walking towards the green domes of the palace across a great circular plaza ringed by a decorative canal and imposing arcades. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you." Anakin looked down at her in surprise and Amidala explained: "It's customary for a monarch to memorialize her reign by some building project. This is mine." She looked with satisfaction at the sparkling water, the graceful colonnades, and best of all the Naboo and Gungan citizens strolling side by side in friendly conversation. "It's called the Plaza of Reunion, I meant it to symbolize our alliance with the Gungans, the two halves of our world become one whole, an unbroken circle."

"A beautiful thought, beautifully embodied," Anakin told her, his voice dropping into that unnervingly intimate tone that made his words seem meant for her ears alone.

She felt herself blush and shot a quick sidelong look at the Master.

"You can be proud of your plaza, Highness," he said, "and even prouder of the accomplishment it memorializes." There was not even a shadow of reproach or disapproval in word or manner but Anakin seemed abashed just the same.

"Tell me, Pad - your Highness, did you dream of being queen as a little girl like I dreamed of becoming a Jedi?" he asked quickly

Amidala laughed a little self consciously; "Oh no. I wanted to be a legislator I never intended to stand for election to any throne." She frowned a little. "I wasn't the youngest queen ever elected but now that I think back on it I'm not sure I was old enough. I'm not sure I was ready." She laughed again ruefully. "And now I'm getting too old. According to custom I should abdicate this year, leave public service and start living my own life...have a family...but how can I with the Republic in the state it's in? I have responsibilities beyond Naboo now. But I don't want to hang on to power past my proper term either. It's wrong and it sets a bad precedent."

Qui-Gon nodded. "I understand your concerns, your Highness. You must do what you feel is right."

"That's just the problem, both courses feel wrong!"

"I know what you mean." Anakin looked over her head at his Master. "What do you do when all the paths feel wrong? Or when different paths both feel right but lead in opposite directions?"

"You quiet your mind and listen for the voice of the Force." Qui-Gon answered. "And then you do Its will whatever that turns out to be."

Anakin nodded, face closed, distant. It made Amidala uncomfortable. "But what if you're not a Jedi?"

The Master looked down at her and she was transfixed by the pure, crystaline intensity of his gaze. "Every living thing is connected to the Force, your Highness. Listen for it and it will speak to you too."

...

"Your Highness!" Sache jumped up from her chair and rushed to embrace her queen and friend, not quite tripping over the skirts of her typically cumbersome royal robes. "I am so glad to see you, we've been so worried!"

"Well you shouldn't have been. Why would anybody look twice at a young matron from the Thousand Moons?" Amidala scolded returning the hug. "Besides I had a Jedi Knight to defend me. If anybody was in danger it was you - that's the whole point of a decoy." And she hated it, hated sending her friends to take her risks for her. She forced herself to continue cheerfully: "But now we're both safely home and we can relax a bit." She turned to Qui-Gon. "Master, I had planned a vacation with my family in the lake country -"

He nodded. "So I have been told. I see no reason for your Highness to alter your plans. The Lake Palace should be easy to secure and the rest will do you good."

"Do us all good," Eirtae said emphatically. "Your family left yesterday, your Highness, I told them to expect us this afternoon."

"We'd better hurry then. You know how my mother worries. I'll never hear the end of it if I'm so much as one minute late."

What Amidala loved most about her rare vacations was the chance to wear soft, comfortable, beautiful clothes, like other young women, instead of burdensome royal robes. But she wished now she'd chosen something a little less airy. The admiration in Anakin's eyes made her feel strange, conscious of her body in a new and disturbing way. And when the rough wool of his sleeve brushed her bare shoulder as he helped her out of the skimmer it sent tingles all through her - like she'd touched a live wire. Then she saw her nieces rushing down the water steps to greet her and forgot everything else, hugging a double armful of wriggling little girl. "Ryoo, Pooja!"

"Did you bring us something from Coruscant, Auntie Padme?" Ryoo asked. Then she caught sight of Anakin and the Master, tall and unfamiliar in their brown robes, standing among the handmaidens and guards of the Queen's entourage and stared open mouthed.

"As a matter of fact I did," Amidala said quickly. "I brought you two new friends. This is Master Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Anakin Skywalker. They're Jedi Knights from the Capital."

"Jedi? Wow!" Ryoo was clearly impressed. Pooja was speechless.

"That's never little Ani!" gasped a voice from the top of the steps.

Anakin looked up at the three adults descending to greet them and grinned. "I'm afraid it is, Madame Naberrie, I've grown some since you saw me last."

Amidala's mother reached out to hug him. Their heads were nearly level, but only because Anakin was still two steps down. "You certainly have! And what's this 'Madame Naberrie' business? You're a grown man now, call me Jobal." She turned to embrace her daughter. "Honey, it's so good to see you safe. We were so worried."

"Yes, Mom, I know," Amidala said resignedly. "But everything's all right now. I'm home safe and sound."

"With two Jedi bodyguards," her father said quietly. "Sweetheart, I know you don't like us fussing over you but you can't expect us to just laugh off an attempt on your life."

"But I'm home!" she said impatiently. "Everything's fine now. Master Qui-Gon and Anakin are just here as a precaution."

"Like the Chancellor's personal guards?" her sister Sola asked in that same quiet tone.

Amidala looked at the red guards stationed at the top and bottom of the stairs, faceless and motionless as statues, sighed. "Palpatine worries almost as much as you all do. If sending a detachment of his own picked men to watch over me makes him feel better I'll humor him, but nothing's going to happen. This is Naboo after all."

She'd been dying to see her family but was just as glad to get away from them for a few minutes on the pretext of showing Anakin the view from the south terrace. "This has always been my favorite of the royal retreats." she told him. "We came here all the time when I was in Level Three. See that island? We used to swim out there every day. I love the water."

"I do too. I guess it comes from growing up on a desert planet."

She could feel his eyes on her and kept her own determinedly on the island as she rattled on: "We used to lie on the sand and let the sun dry us...and try to guess the names of the birds singing."

"I don't like sand." he said firmly. "It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets in everywhere on Tatooine. Not like here. Here everything's soft...and smooth..."

She felt his hand come to rest on her shoulder, large and warm the palm calloused from his lightsabre, then slide gently down her bare back. Her heart pounded so loud she could scarcely hear her own voice babbling something about the old glassmaker who'd lived on the island when she was a girl. "- He used to make glass out of sand - and vases and necklaces out of the glass. They were magical."

"Everything here is magical." Anakin said in that soft, intimate voice.

She looked up at him and was captivated by those eyes, so very blue, like the lake water or the old man's glass. She had to keep talking - anything might happen if she stopped! "You could look into the glass and see the water. The way it ripples and moves -" _'Like the light ripples and moves in your eyes. Is it the Force?'_ "- It looked so real...but it wasn't."

"Sometimes, when you believe something to be real, it becomes real."

She swallowed hard with a dry throat and forged determinedly on: "I used to think if you looked too deeply into the glass - " or a pair of eyes _this _pair of eyes. "- you would lose yourself."

"I think it's true."

'_Oh it is, it is.'_ She was losing herself, drowning in light shot azure depths coming closer and closer. Then his mouth was on hers and the blood was singing in her ears and her body was filled with warmth like she was lying naked on the sand letting the sun dry her... No! She pulled away in panic and heard her own voice stammer; "No. I shouldn't have done that."

Anakin straightened, abashed, a little hurt, and every bit as dismayed as she was. "I'm sorry. I forgot myself. It won't happen again."


	6. Disturbing Developments

Obi-Wan looked, serene Jedi mask securely in place, through the clear wall of the corridor into a vast brilliantly lighted space filled with hundreds of floating wheels, each carrying dozens of glass bubbles, every bubble containing a tiny human embryo. "Very impressive."   
  
"I hoped you would be pleased." Lama Su looked proudly, even affectionately, at the 'hatchery' as he'd called it. "Clones can think creatively. You'll find that they are immensely superior to droids."   
  
Obi-Wan didn't doubt it. These were human beings, designed, tailored to a specific purpose but still tied to the Force like all living things. And the Force was with them. Not Jedi level but far more strongly than usual.   
  
They moved on to overlook a classroom filled with row upon row of identical young boys intent on their computer terminals.   
  
"We take great pride in our combat education and training programs." Lama Su told the Jedi. "This group was created about five years ago."   
  
Obi-Wan hid his shock. The boys looked at least ten. "You mentioned growth acceleration?"   
  
"Oh yes," the small head on its long, stalklike neck bobbed assent, "it's essential. Otherwise a mature clone would take a lifetime to grow."   
  
"Isn't that dangerous, psychologically I mean?" Jacen asked suddenly.   
  
"We take every possible precaution against that." Taun We assured him seriously. "We are careful to see our clones have all the emotional and social support necesary to develop stable personalities."   
  
"Our abberancy rate is just seven for every two hundred units." Lama Su put in with pardonable pride.   
  
"Commendable." said Obi-Wan. "May I ask what is done with the abberants? Are they destroyed?"   
  
"Certainly not!" the two Kaminoans chorused, clearly appalled.   
  
"I assure you, Master Jedi, we are fully aware of our responsibility to our clones." Lama Su continued a bit stiffly. "Abberants are treated and returned to their Age Group when restored to full health."   
  
Obi-Wan bowed slightly. "I am glad to hear it. I meant no offense, Prime Minister."   
  
"I understand your concern, Master Jedi." Lama Su conceeded, clearly mollified. "I have heard the ethical standards of others in our field sometimes leave much to be desired."   
  
The tubelike glass hallway passed next over a large eating area. Hundreds of strongly built young men with dark curling hair and golden brown skins, dressed in two tone red outfits, sat at long white tables eating hungrily. A few glanced casually up at the passing tour party.   
  
"You'll find they are totally obedient, taking any order without question." Lama Su told the Jedi. "We modified their genetic structure to make them less independent than the original host."   
  
Obi-Wan hoped his sudden interest wasn't to obvious. "Who was the original host?" surely a natural enough question.   
  
Lama Su certainly seemed to find it so. "A bounty hunter called Jango Fett." Master and Apprentice's eyes snapped together like magnets as both jumped to identical conclusions. "We felt a Jedi would be the perfect choice," the Prime Minister continued, "but Sifo-Dyas hand picked Jango Fett himself."   
  
Thank the Force for that. The thought of mass produced Jedi gave Obi-Wan cold shivers. And yet - was the tightly regimented, strictly conformist training the Kaminoans were giving the clones really all that different from what the Temple did to its initiates?   
  
He recoiled from the thought in horror. *Of course it is! How can you think otherwise, Obi-Wan Kenobi? The Jedi are interested in developing individuals not faceless cannon fodder* a sudden niggle of doubt. *- aren't they?* He pushed the disturbing idea away. *Focus, Obi-Wan, focus.* "And where is this bounty hunter now?"   
  
"Oh, we keep him here." answered Lama Su. They were passing now over a sort of dressing/assembly area filled with clones collecting and donning pieces of white armor. "Apart from his pay, which is considerable, Fett demanded only one thing - an unaltered clone for himself. Curious, isn't it?"   
  
Obi-Wan agreed. An immature version of himself was about the last thing he'd want to have around. "Unaltered?"   
  
"Pure genetic replication." the Prime Minister explained. "No tampering with the structure to make it more docile...and no growth acceleration."   
  
Well the last made sense anyway. But Obi-Wan could easily think of any number of things about himself he'd like to have altered, given the chance. "I would very much like to meet Jango Fett."   
  
"I would be most happy to arrange it for you." Taun We said deferentially as they went through a doorway out onto a small balcony overlooking a vast parade ground, domed over to protect it from Kamino's vicious weather. Thousands of white armored troops marched below in perfectly cadenced formations.   
  
"Magnificent aren't they?" Lama Su said, beaming with pride.   
  
Obi-Wan could only nod. This was so wrong, every instinct and feeling screamed in protest against it. And yet there was no Darkness in the Kaminoans that he could sense. To Lama Su and Tuan We the clones were not mere 'cannon fodder' but living works of art, carefully designed and nurtured to be the perfect soldiers. Misguided they might be, but not evil.   
  
However the same could not be said for whoever had ordered this army. Surely not a Jedi Master, if the Council had sanctioned this - atrocity - than their teachings were hypocrisy and the Order a gigantic lie. And that couldn't be - could it?   
****   
  
How could he have done that? What'd he been thinking? Anakin snuck a look at Padme, sitting at the head of the long table in the great dining salon.   
  
She'd changed into a tight, glittery gown that covered her from throat to foot with flowing, gauzy oversleeves and train. Diamonds twinkled in her elaborately dressed hair, veiled by more rainbow hued gauze. She looked beautiful, as always, but he was painfully aware of the unease she was trying to hide beneath a bright, happy demeanor.   
  
*I acted on impulse." he thought miserably. *Obi-Wan warned me that I could hurt her, and now I have.* At least she hadn't seemed angry with him, just disturbed, upset. *Like me.*   
  
Sola smiled at him from across the table. "This is exciting. Do you know, Anakin, you're the first boyfriend my little sister's every brought home?"   
  
Anakin supressed a flare of anger, how could she be so tactless? quickly superceeded by guilt *She doesn't know, she's just teasing.* he hoped nobody else caught the distress under the exagerated exasperation in Padme's voice as she answered:   
  
"Sola! Anakin's not my boyfriend. He's a Jedi assigned by the Senate to protect me, that's all."   
  
"But I am your friend, your Highness." he said quickly, to draw attention away from her. Smiled at Sola. "If it wasn't for the Queen I'd never have met Master Qui-Gon and become a Jedi."   
  
"That's not what she meant, Ani." Padme said impatiently, still embarassed.   
  
"It isn't?" Anakin gave Sola his best wide eyed, innocent-unworldly-Jedi-Padawan look. Drawing answering looks of disbelief from both sisters.   
  
Jobal cleared her throat. "When are you planning to announce your abdication, dear?"   
  
Padme looked down at her plate. "I haven't decided yet."   
  
Jobal opened her mouth to protest but was forstalled by Lido, Sola's husband. "It might be better for Padme to wait another year, Mom, give things a chance to settle down. We've had enough upsets recently."   
  
"Another *year*!" Jobal stared at her son-in-law incredulously.   
  
Her husband, Ruwee, put a firm hand over hers. "Lido has a point, dear, an election right now might be a mistake."   
  
"It's just one more year, Mom." Padme said.   
  
"A whole year!" Jobal's eyes filled with tears. "I want her home now, Ruwee, where she'll be safe and we can have some peace!" to her daughter: "Aren't you tired of all this Padme? I know I am!"   
  
There were tears in Padme's eyes as well, sparkling like her gown in the lamplight. "I'm tired too, Mom, and I will abdicate just as soon as I possibly can - but I've got to think about what's best for Naboo."   
****   
  
"You should have told us about Anakin." Sola said, sitting next to her mother on the big royal bed watching the handmaidens prepare their mistress for the night.   
  
"Tell you what? There's nothing to tell." Amidala almost snapped. "He's just an old friend, I knew him when he was a child."   
  
"Well he's certainly not a child any more!" Sola grinned. "I've seen the way he looks at you when he thinks nobody's watching. *And* the way you blushed when he took your hand."   
  
"I did not!"   
  
"Did too. You're blushing now, just like a cherry. It's cute. I've never seen you in love before, Baby Sister."   
  
"I am not in love with Anakin Skywalker!" Amidala fairly shouted. "Mom, make her leave me alone!"   
  
"I don't think this is a matter for teasing, Sola." Jobal told her elder daughter, eyeing the younger speculatively.   
  
"No." Sola agreed, suddenly perfectly serious. Gently: "Being in love is nothing to be afraid of, Padme. I'm glad it's finally happened for you." a glint of returning mischief. "Mani and I'd begun to give up hope."   
  
"And Anakin's such a sweet boy." Jobal mused, contemplating her potential son-in-law. "Smart too, well travelled, and not the type to let you walk all over him...you could do much worse, Padme."   
  
"MOM!" Amidala hyperventilated for a moment, got herself back in hand." Mom, you don't understand. Jedi aren't allowed to marry."   
  
"Well he doesn't have to stay a Jedi does he?" Jobal said reasonably. "Any more than you have to go on being queen for the rest of your life."   
  
"It's not the same thing at all, Mom." Amidala exploded, struggled to explain. "I ran for queen knowing it was a temporary position. Anakin committed himself to the Jedi for life." Jobal opened her mouth to object but her daughter overrode her. "Yes, it's true Jedi can leave the Order at will, but it's almost never done. Being a Jedi is something Ani's dreamed about since he was a little boy. Master Jinn nearly died to get him the chance. Even if Anakin wanted to I'd *never* let him give up his life's work, for me."   
  
There was a moment's silence, broken only by the rustling of the handmaidens' gowns as they put away Amidala's queenly finery, then Jobal said gently: "Isn't that *his* decision to make, dear?"   
****  
Breakfast was interupted by the boisterous arrival of Amidala's   
eldest sister, Mani, her husband, Hiro, and their four children; the nine   
year old twins Abbay and Luka, six year old Jai and baby Shiri who'd  
just turned three.  
  
"I'm so glad you're home," Mani said with a warm hug for her sister,   
"but who or what are all those dangerous looking men in red?"  
  
"Members of the Chancellor's personal guard," Amidala explained. "He   
sent them for added security. They'll be recalled as soon as whoever's   
behind the assassination attempts is caught."   
  
"Whenever that may be." Jobal muttered under her breath.   
  
Amidala pretended not to hear. "Completely unecessary of course, but   
it made the Chancellor happy so I agreed to it."  
  
"How thoughtful of you." Mani said a little drily. Looked down the   
table at the Master and Anakin, both of whom had come instantly to their   
feet when the door had first burst open. "And I suppose you accepted   
the protection of two Jedi Knights just to make the Senate feel better?"  
  
"Something like that. This is Master Qui-Gon Jinn who helped us   
during the invasion, and his Padawan Learner Anakin Skywalker."  
  
"The little boy who blew up the Droid Control Ship." Mani remarked,   
looked him up and down. "Not so little any more."   
  
Anakin half smiled, bowed and said nothing. Amidala glared daggers   
at her big sister. Maybe Mani hadn't meant anything in particular by   
that last crack - but more than likely she had!  
  
"Will you show us your lightsabre?" Abbay asked eagerly.  
  
Ani gave him a real smile, not a polite Jedi pretense of one. "Not   
inside, I don't want to burn any holes in your Aunt's royal decor."  
******  
  
Amidala had learned by hard experience that palaces and her nephews   
didn't mix. Abbay and Jai were the sweetest little boys in the Galaxy   
and they certainly didn't *mean* to be destructive, but centuries old   
royal furnishings and objects of art didn't take kindly to being used to   
build forts and fight imaginary battles against Droid armies, so she'd   
taken the precaution of arranging for her family and entourage to spend   
the day in the meadows beside the lake.   
  
The palace staff had erected an awning gay with fluttering streamers   
and spread rugs on the grass beneath it, then furnished the pavillion   
with chairs for the adults, cushions for the children and low tables for   
food and drink. They'd also put up changing tents, in case anybody   
wanted to swim, laid out an A'fresho course(1) and set up a Risu court(2).   
  
Amidala joined her handmaidens and nieces in a game of A'fresho   
which had the added advantage of keeping her well away from Anakin. She   
caught an occasional glimpse of him, first sitting on the grass talking to   
her nephews with a lot of swooping hand motions, then later of the   
three of them down on the beach busily building something in the sand.  
  
"Just how much danger is my daughter really in, Master Jedi?" Ruwee   
asked Qui-Gon quietly as they sat together in the shade of the awning.   
  
"I'm afraid the situation is quite serious, more so than her   
Highness is willing to admit - even to herself." was the equally quiet answer.   
"There were two attempts upon her life while she was on Coruscant-"  
  
"Two!" Jobal interupted, horrified. "We heard about the destruction   
of her ship but nobody's said anything about a second attempt."  
  
"That night a pair of Kouhun millipedes, an extremely poisonous form   
of insect life, were introduced into her room." the Master explained.   
"They were destroyed before they could harm her and the assassin   
captured by Anakin and my former Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. But unfortunately she   
was killed by a confederate before she could be questioned. Obi-Wan has   
been charged with tracking down whoever is behind the assassins and I   
have every confidence he will do so quickly. But in the meantime the   
Queen must be carefully guarded for they will certainly try again."   
  
"Here, on Naboo?" Jobal asked incredulously.  
  
"I'm afraid it's possible," Qui-Gon said gently, "we must be   
watchful. But I promise Anakin and I won't let anything happen to your   
daughter."  
  
After finishing her game Amidala went down to the lakeside beach,   
only to stop in her tracks and stare at Abbay and Jai crawling along a   
sort of obstacle course they'd made in the sand, swooping their hands and   
making 'vrooom' noises. She turned to Anakin sitting cross-legged   
nearby. "What on Naboo are they doing?"  
  
He grinned up at her. "Pod-racing."  
  
"They're covered with sand." she said in exactly the tone fourteen   
year old Padme would have used to nine year old Ani. He got casually to   
his feet, towering over her. "And so are you!" she reached out to brush   
the yellow sand from his dark tunic. Then their eyes met and both   
suddenly remembered the terrace and the kiss.   
  
Amidala felt her cheeks burn as Anakin looked quickly away, calm   
Jedi mask falling over his face. *I hate it when he does that!* Cleared   
her throat: "Abbay! Jai! Lunchtime!"   
****  
  
"Has Anakin seen the falls yet?"  
  
"Oh, Mani! We only arrived yesterday," Amidala answered,   
exasperated, "we haven't had time for sightseeing."  
  
"Well you have time now." Mani said reasonably. "Why don't you show   
them to him?" To Anakin: "They're just a mile or so upstream and it's a   
lovely walk."  
  
Amidala glared at her sister. She knew perfectly well what Mani was   
up to! She, Mom and Sola all thought all they had to do was throw the   
right boy Amidala's way and suddenly her duty to Naboo wouldn't matter   
any more. Apparently the three of them had decided Anakin was the right   
boy, and never mind he was a Jedi Knight!  
  
"I'm sure Master Qui-Gon wouldn't approve of me going off on my   
own." she answered.  
  
The Master looked up from his contempation of a green-gold Avassa   
fruit to regard first her and then his Apprentice equally thoughtfully   
before saying: "As long as you have Anakin with you, your Highness, you   
should be safe enough."  
  
Amidala stared at Qui-Gon incredulously. What was he thinking? He   
was a Jedi, he *must* realize it was a bad idea for her and Anakin to be   
alone together - musn't he? He couldn't possibly be *that* detached   
from normal human emotions!  
*****  
  
"I said it wouldn't happen again and it won't." Anakin told her   
quietly as they waded through knee high grass and wildflowers. "You don't   
have to be afraid of me, Padme."  
  
She blushed - how she wished she'd stop doing that! - "I'm not   
afraid of you, Ani, I just - well I don't see any point in making things   
harder for us then they have to be."  
  
"You don't resolve problems by running away from them, as you know   
very well." looked seriously down at her. "I don't want to spend the   
rest of my life avoiding you Padme. I'd like to get past this and go on   
being friends at least."  
  
She swallowed. "So would I, Ani.   
  
After duly admiring the falls they settled down in the grass for a   
rest, Amidala with a lapful of flowers she'd picked.  
  
"You expect me to believe you haven't so much as looked at another   
girl in ten years?" she demanded. A flicker of something - guilt? -   
passed over his face and she jumped on it. "Aha, you have! Who was she?"   
threw a flower at him. "Come on - give!"  
  
"Well, I did have a terrible crush on Aayla Secura when I was   
fourteen." he conceeded reluctantly. "She's a Twi'lek Jedi -"  
  
"You're kidding!" Amidala interupted.  
  
Anakin sighed. "She gets a lot of that. Twi'leks are as likely to be   
strong in the Force as anybody else. Don't judge the whole species by   
the poor girls sold as playthings."  
  
"Sorry." she said, a little abashed.  
  
"That's how we got to know each other. Aayla, Master and I were   
ordered to close down a piece of slime dealing in Twi'lek girls." grimaced.   
"She and I got kind of emotional about it, identified too strongly with   
the victims, her being a Twi'lek and me having been a slave."  
  
"Compassion's a good thing, Ani." Amidala said gently.  
  
But he shook his head. "It wasn't compassion, Padme, it was anger -   
a desire for vengeance. Very bad, that leads to the Dark Side." smiled   
ruefully at his memories. "Of course Master didn't let it get that far,   
he brought us back to our senses in short order let me tell you!"  
  
"I suppose she's beautiful, this Aayla." Amidala said, absently   
plucking petals.   
  
"Oh yes." Anakin answered, eyeing her sidelong as he continued.   
"She's a blue, not as deep as Sebulba's twins more a soft sky blue, with   
the same color eyes. Slim, supple, you should see her with a lightsabre -   
poetry in motion."   
  
Amidala ran out of petals and began shreding the stalk of her   
flower. "So - what happened?"  
  
"Nothing." she looked at him and he shrugged. "We finished the   
mission and haven't worked together since. I see her around the Temple   
sometimes. What about you? Don't tell me *you've* never been in love."  
  
She dropped the ruined flower, started making a nosegay with the   
others, eyeing him coyly sidelong. "I don't know...."  
  
"Sure you do - you just don't want to tell me."  
  
Looked at him directly, challengingly. "Are you going to use one of   
your Jedi mindtricks on me?"  
  
He shook his head. "They only work on the weak- minded. You are   
anything but weak-minded."  
  
That pleased her. "All right." she looked back at the flowers in her   
lap. "I was twelve. His name was Palo. We were both in the Legislative   
Youth Program. He was a few years older than I...very cute...dark curly   
hair...dreamy eyes."  
  
"All right, I get the picture." Anakin interupted, almost sharply.   
"Whatever happened to him?"  
  
"I went into public service. He went on to become an artist."  
  
"Maybe he was the smart one."  
  
She looked at him again, this time thoughtfully. "You don't like   
politicians do you?"  
  
His eyes glinted teasingly. "I like one or two - but I'm not really   
sure about one of them." then he turned serious too. "I don't think the   
system works."  
  
This was the kind of conversation Amidala was used to, the kind she   
enjoyed. "How would you have it work?"  
  
His brow wrinkled in thought. "We need a system where all the   
politicians sit down and discuss the problem," he said slowly, "agree what's   
in the best interests of all the people, and then do it."  
  
"That's exactly what we do." Amidala said. He looked his disbelief   
and she conceeded ruefully: "The trouble is that people don't always   
agree. In fact they hardly ever do."  
  
Anakin remembered the two Senate debates he'd witnessed first hand.   
There hadn't been much concern for the common good visible there. Just   
ego, jockying for power, *politics*. "Then they should be made to."   
  
Amidala stiffened. He couldn't mean that, surely he didn't realize   
what he'd just said. "By whom? Who's going to make them?"  
  
"I don't know. Someone."  
  
"You?" she challenged. And was relieved to see him blink.  
  
"Of course not me!"   
  
The shock and indignation in his voice was unmistakeably genuine.   
Amidala was relieved, but determined to make him see the error of his   
position. "But someone."  
  
"Someone wise." he agreed. And looked right at her.  
  
That rocked her back on her heels for a minute. Surely he didn't   
mean - "That sounds an awful lot like dictatorship to me." she said   
primly.  
  
He just shrugged. "Well if it works..."  
  
She stared at him, too appalled to speak or even to breath, and then   
she saw the smile he was struggling to hold back.  
  
"You're making fun of me!"  
  
He held up both hands in mock protest. "Oh no, I'd be much to   
frightened to tease a Queen."  
  
"You're so bad!" she threw the nosegay at him, and then the rest of   
the flowers, laughing with relief. He'd given her a real scare there -   
just for a moment.  
****  
  
Tuan We was as good as her word. She appeared at the door of the   
Jedi's guest quarters bright and early the next morning with the news   
Jango Fett had returned and she would be happy to present him, right now if   
the Master Jedi so pleased.  
  
Needless to say he did.  
  
"Fett has been away?" Obi-Wan asked casually as as Jacen followed   
his Master and their willowy guide through the shining white corridors of   
a residential area, judging from the number of Kaminoans of all ages   
they encountered.  
  
Tuan We nodded. "We allow him to come and go as he pleases, within   
reason of course. But we do not interfere with his personal business   
concerns so long as he fulfills the terms of his contract with us."  
  
*And what a wonderful, secure base of operations this place must   
be.* Jacen thought grimly.  
  
"Exactly what do you require of him beyond his genetic material?"   
the Master inquired.  
  
"Training duties mostly." Tuan We responded readily. "We can teach   
the clones strategy and tactics and logistics from computers but   
personal combat skills are another matter. Jango is a gifted warrior, his   
contribution has been vital to our success."  
  
The door they finally stopped before was superficially identical to   
its neighbors, until you noticed the customized locking mechanism. Very   
sophisticated and unmistakeably of Human manufacture.   
  
Jacen and his Master exchanged a quick look just as the door slid   
open to reveal a small boy, identical to the five year old clones they   
had seen the day before, but wearing different clothes and frowning   
suspiciously up at them.  
  
"Boba, is your father here?" Tuan We inquired gently. Of course,   
this must be the unaltered clone Jango had demanded as part of his   
payment.   
  
"Yep." the boy answered briefly, shifting his wary survey from the   
Master to Jacen.   
  
"May we see him?" Tuan We continued patiently.   
  
"Sure." the boy shrugged and led them into a living area as spotless   
and impersonal as the Jedi's own guest quarters. Jango Fett had called   
these rooms home for ten years and raised a son in them without   
Humanizing their Kaminoan decor in the slightest. Interesting.   
  
"Dad! Tuan We's here."   
  
A man came out of an inner door. His face was that of the adult   
clones, but many years older, seamed with scars and suspicion. Dark eyes   
narrowed at the sight of the two Jedi.  
  
"Jango, welcome back. Was your trip productive?" Tuan We asked,   
pleasant as ever.   
  
"Fairly." he answered briefly, attention fixed on the Master.   
  
Obi-Wan looked back with a serene expression that his Padawan knew   
covered intense excitement. That, and Jacen's own feelings, told him   
they'd found their quarry.  
  
"This is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi." Tuan We was saying. "He's come   
to check on our progress."  
  
"That right?" Jango replied, eyes riveted on the Master's face.   
Jacen wondered suddenly just how good a look Fett had managed to get at   
Anakin and Obi-Wan on Coruscant. It seemed recognition went both ways.  
  
"Your clones are very impressive." Obi-Wan was saying, his polished   
Core-worlds accent smoothly challenging. "You must be very proud."  
  
"I'm just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe,   
Master Jedi." Fett responded just as smooth. But the tension between the two   
men was tangible   
  
Obi-Wan's eyes flickered a moment, going past Fett to the open door   
behind him. The bounty hunter's face hardened as if he knew he'd   
betrayed himself somehow. Unfortunately Jacen couldn't see into the bedroom   
from where he was standing.  
  
"Ever make your way as far into the interior as Coruscant?" Obi-Wan   
was saying, still smooth but with an undertone of victory.  
  
"Possibly." Fett conceeded unwillingly.  
  
"Then you must know Master Sifo-Dyas." Obi-Wan continued   
conversationally.  
  
Jango broke eye contact, walked a few steps towards the half circle   
of panoramic windows looking out onto Komino's endless storm and rapped   
a brief sentence in Huttese to his 'son' before asking: "Master who?"  
  
The boy slid past Obi-Wan to close the bedroom door, hiding   
whatever-it-was from his view. The Master ignored him, focusing his attention   
upon the father. "Sifo-Dyas. Wasn't he the Jedi who hired you for this   
job?"  
  
Fett turned abruptly, walked into Obi-Wan's space crowding him in a   
rather crude attempt at intimidation. Quite ineffectual of course.   
"Never heard of him."   
  
"Really?" the Master's beautifully modulated voice called Fett a   
liar as plainly as any words.  
  
He controlled a reflexive bristle. "I was recruited by a woman   
called Sinistra on one of the moons of Bogden."   
  
Truth, if not the whole truth. Jacen recognized.   
  
So did Obi-Wan. "Curious."  
  
Fett tried to take the initiative. "Do you like your army?"  
  
"I look forward to seeing them in action." the Master answered with   
that ice cold smile in his eyes, the one that always made Jacen very,   
very glad they were on the same side.  
  
Fett's dark eyes glinted wolfishly in reply. "They'll do their job   
well, I'll guarantee that."  
  
Obi-Wan inclined his head politely, but with a threat that was   
almost tangible. "Thank you for your time, Jango."  
  
"Always a pleasure to meet a Jedi." the bounty hunter answered. But   
he was afraid, Jacen could feel it. And so, no doubt could the Master.  
*****  
  
"Thank you for your time and courtesy." Obi-Wan said to Tuan We in   
the corridor outside. "We'll be leaving now."  
  
The Kaminoan didn't turn a proverbial hair, after ten years of Jango   
Fett there probably wasn't anything a Human could do or say that'd   
preturb her. "As you wish, Master Jedi." She'd been leading them back to   
their guest quarters, now she changed direction moving towards the outer   
hull and the landing platforms. "Your visit has been a great relief to   
us, after so long without any word we were becoming concerned."  
  
"I apologize." Obi-Wan answered. "Master Sifo-Dyas' unexpected death   
made - difficulties."  
  
"We have of course kept the Jedi's involvement a secret, just as   
your Master requested." Tuan We assured him.  
  
"I'm sure the Council will be very pleased by my report." They had   
reached the glass doors to their landing platform. The Master looked up   
at Tuan We.  
  
"Tell your Council the first battalions are ready. And remind them   
that if they need more troops, it will take more time to grow them."   
  
The big indigo-black eyes blinking down at Obi-Wan held a familiar   
expression, one Jacen had seen any number of times before in the eyes of   
many different kinds of female when they looked at his Master. Funny,   
he wouldn't have expected it here, not given the physiological   
differences. Of course the queen of the squidlike Ruutans of Tan Ruu III had   
found Obi-Wan thoroughly charming dispite his peculiar and repellant, (in   
her eyes) physionomy. Whatever it was Master had, it obviously   
transcended species.  
  
"I won't forget." Obi-Wan assured her. "And thank you."  
  
"Thank you!" Tuan We returned and stood watching as they went out   
the door into the storm.  
  
The starfighter and poor Arfour were right where they'd left them,   
dripping with rain and spray from the heavy seas below.   
  
The Master looked over his shoulder, to be sure Tuan We had gone,   
then addressed the droid. "Arfour, relay this, "scramble code five." to   
Coruscant: care of the 'old folk's home.'"  
  
As the Force would have it Master Yoda and Master Windu were already   
closeted together so there was no delay in putting Obi-Wan through to   
them.  
  
"We have successfully made contact with the Prime Minister of   
Kamino." he reported, voice pitched above the drumming of rain on platform   
and fighter. "They are using a bounty hunter named Jango Fett to create a   
clone army. I have a strong feeling that this bounty hunter is the   
assassin we're looking for."  
  
Darn right he was! Jacen nodded agreement even though he knew the   
Councillors couldn't see him.  
  
Master Windu's image hovered, sitting crosslegged, above the wing in   
front of Arfour, raindrops falling through it. "Do you think these   
cloners are involved in the plot against Queen Amidala?"  
  
"No, Master, there appears to be no motive."  
  
Yoda's image displaced Windu's. "Do not assume anything, Obi-Wan.   
Clear your mind must be if we are to discover the real villains behind   
this plot."  
  
"Yes, Master." Obi-Wan said obediently.  
  
Jacen frowned at the image. If the Trade Federation was behind the   
assassination attempts, and the Sith were behind the Trade Federation,   
and the Seperatists, then their trail might lead them in some very   
strange directions indeed. Right to the Sith, whoever and wherever they   
were. Or was Master Yoda implying that their chain of reasoning was all   
wrong and the threat might be coming from some entirely unknown and   
unexpected quarter?  
  
"They say Master Sifo-Dyas placed the order for a clone army at the   
request of the Senate almost ten years ago." Obi-Wan told Yoda. "I was   
under the impression he was killed before that." more than an   
impression. The Master and Jacen had compared notes the night before and   
acertained Sifo-Dyas had indeed died nearly eleven years ago - some months   
before the Naboo Crisis. "Did the Council ever authorize the creation of a   
clone army?"  
  
Mace Windu's holo image replaced Yoda's. "No." he said firmly.   
"Whoever placed that order did not have the authorization of the Council."  
  
Jacen breathed a sigh of relief, detected a slight easing of his   
Master's stance as well. So he'd been worried too. The Council had done   
some pretty strange things in its time. While Jacen hadn't wanted to   
believe it, it had seemed possible that maybe they were behind the clone   
army. But Master Windu was telling the truth, he could feel it.   
  
"Into custody take this Jango Fett." Yoda was instructing Obi-Wan.   
"Bring him here. Question him we will."  
  
It was the order they had both expected. "Yes, Master, I will report   
back when we have him."  
****  
  
Obi-Wan keyed the doorbell of the Fett apartment. Nothing happened,   
the Master gave it half a minute then laid his hand against the door   
and used the Force to release the lock.   
  
The apartment was not only empty but in some small disorder, drawers   
left open, cabinet doors ajar. Any personal effects Jango or his 'son'   
might have had were gone.  
  
Obi-Wan picked up a computer screenboard lying abandoned on a table   
in the bedroom and punched in a request. A plan of the city appeared   
onscreen, the Fett's apartment and the two nearest landing platforms   
outlined in red. "Right. I'll take the one to the left, you check out the   
one on the right."  
  
Jacen's landing platform was empty but gave him a fine view of his   
Master charging Fett on the other, some hundred meters away.  
  
Obi-Wan deflected the bounty hunter's blaster bolts easily but was   
knocked to the ground by some kind of explosive fired from Fett's   
helmet. Then the boy fired their small ship's guns right at the Master. He   
went flying in one direction, his lightsabre in another.  
  
*Must remember to tell Ani.*   
  
Jango seemed to have lost his weapon as well somehow, but if he   
thought a disarmed Jedi was a negligible threat Obi-Wan soon taught him   
otherwise, but the armor did put Master at a disadvantage.  
  
*I've got to get over there!* A quick look at the smooth, rain slick   
surface of the city domes and the churning waves below told him he'd be   
a fool even to try that way. He'd have to go back inside and through   
the corridors. Looked back at the landing platform in time to see Fett   
rocketing along dragging the Master behind him.   
  
Obi-Wan snagged himself against a column, then using it as a belay,   
yanked Fett right out of the sky, smashing him against the platform.   
His jetpack was knocked loose and whizzed off on its own.   
  
Fett staggered to his feet, Obi-Wan charged him - "No, Master,   
don't!" Jacen's shout was lost in the wind, and it was to late anyway. Over   
the side Fett went, dragging Obi-Wan after him.  
  
Jacen ran back into the city. He'd have to find some way down to the   
lower levels. Master might catch himself on a support strut or   
the like, maybe there was still something he could do.   
  
He ran past the door to the other landing platform, and right into a   
soaked but intact Obi-Wan. "Master!"  
  
"Follow me!" barely breaking stride his Master continued on through   
the doors and back into the driving rain, saber flying to his hand  
and igniting.   
  
It was too late, Fett's oddly shaped craft was already taking off.   
Master snatched a tracking device from his belt and hurled it into the   
air. Jacen saw it clip onto the ship before it oriented itself and   
blasted skyward.  
  
"Come on!" Obi-Wan hurtled past his Padawan, back into the city.   
Jacen took a gulp of wet air and followed.  
  
*Why do I even worry? There isn't any fix, Master can't get himself   
out of. You think I'd know that by now!*  
  
*******  
  
1. A game rather like croquet.  
  
2. A game rather like foursided tennis.   
  



	7. Crisis and Catastrophe

Dooku's first sensation upon regaining consciousness was sheer   
astonishment at still being alive, though that was a decidedly mixed   
blessing at the moment. He had seldom in his long and eventful career felt   
worse.  
  
The battle in the Viceregal palace had drained him, he felt hollow   
and frail, like a reed with the pith removed, and couldn't even scrape   
up sufficient focus to dull the agony of the raw, untended burns on his   
hands. It took him several moments just to gather enough strength to   
sit up and look around.   
  
He was lying in a heap on the metal plates of a ship's deck beneath   
a bright mirror-like dome not quite high enough for him to stand   
upright, nor wide enough to allow him to lie at full length. A containment   
field set to exclude even sound and light waves. Even if he'd had the   
strength to try, it would have been difficult to probe beyond such a   
barrier. By the slight vibration of the plates under him he deduced he was   
aboard a ship in flight, but to where?   
  
Instead of killing the Jedi Master as he lay unconscious, which   
Dooku had fully expected, the Viceroy had taken him prisoner, packed him   
into the most secure confinement the Neimoidians could command and sent   
him somewhere - to some one. And the likely identity of that 'some one'   
set Dooku's heart pounding with something close to panic. He knew his   
own weakness far too well to believe he could win a battle against a   
Sith, even at his best. And in his present condition he'd have no chance   
at all.  
  
*Stop it!* he told himself sternly. *You are too old and too   
experienced to let fear master you, Yan Dooku. You will be calm, you will be   
patient and you will await events.* He lay back down. *Try to rest, to   
get back some of your strength.*   
  
He tried to run through one of the standard calming regimens but the   
pain of his burns was too distracting. It was all he could do to make   
himself to lie still rather than toss and turn in a useless effort to   
escape the agony. Exhaustion warred with pain and eventually he managed   
to fall into a troubled half doze. Only to be roused by the touch of a   
familiar presence; warm, affectionate, and deeply concerned.  
  
"Qui-Gon?"  
***  
  
"Master." Qui-Gon Jinn clenched the hand he had instinctively   
extended and lowered it to the balcony rail. His eyes still fixed on the   
golden, late afternoon sky. Dooku was out there - somewhere - alone, in   
pain and very much afraid. It was the last that worried his former Padawan   
most. Dooku was not a man given to fear, For Qui-Gon to sense it so   
strongly meant his old Master must be in very grave danger indeed wherever   
he was. Far beyond his student's reach or aid.  
  
He wanted desperately to go to him, to get into a ship and let his   
feelings lead him to his threatened Master. But he wouldn't, couldn't.   
He was needed here, just as desperately. Little Padme was also in grave   
danger, though she refused to believe it, right here on her own   
homeworld. And the danger was near, very near, it would stike soon. Anakin,   
distracted by other issues, had failed to sense it but Qui-Gon knew. For   
Padme's sake and Ani's he had to stay exactly where he was.  
  
Dooku, he knew, would agree. Would scold him for even thinking   
otherwise. But it was hard - so hard. *He is not alone,* Qui-Gon reminded   
himself. *the Force is with him, It will guard and comfort him - whatever   
happens.* He lowered his eyes from the golden sky to see his Padawan   
and their charge riding up to the palace on the back of a giant shaak.  
****  
  
Amidala slid off the shaak into Anakin's arms, then turned to face   
her bemused Major Domo. "Hello, Paddy, where is everybody?"  
  
"Your family decided to go across the lake into town to dine with   
friends, your Highness." he answered, recovering himself. "Master Jinn   
and the Handmaidens just finished their own dinner and have retired to   
their quarters."  
  
"Nobody was worried then?"  
  
"Not at all, your Highness."  
  
Amidala sighed with relief. She wasn't going to hear the end of this   
anytime soon; going off to look at the falls with Anakin Skywalker and   
not returning till dinner time! but at least nobody'd scold her for   
frightening them. She looked up at Ani. "Hungry?"  
  
He grinned. "Starved."  
  
"Me too." turned back to the Major Domo. "Lay a table for two in the   
small dining room please, Paddy."  
  
He bowed. "At once your Highness."  
  
Amidala went upstairs to her rooms to change. Of course the girls   
were there, brimming with carefully controlled curiousity.  
  
"There you are at last," Eirtae said, but without concern.  
  
"Did Anakin enjoy the falls?" Rabe asked slyly.  
  
"Very much." Amidala answered, with her most regally intimidating   
look. "We had a very pleasant afternoon."  
  
"How nice for you, your Highness." she answered, quite unimpressed.   
Royal airs never worked on her handmaidens, they knew her too well.  
  
Amidala walked into her wardrobe room, pulling off her headband and   
cauls as she went. "Let's see, what shall I wear for dinner?"  
  
So many dresses! She remembered Anakin saying how much he liked her   
in 'simple things' but she didn't seem to *have* anything 'simple'. No,   
wait: "What about that one."   
  
"This?" Sache took the gown from the wardrobe; a plain black evening   
dress, with fitted bodice of soft kaadu leather and a trailing lace   
skirt.  
  
"Yes, that will do nicely."  
  
All four handmaidens, even Milla's shy Dorme, looked at her with   
surprise - and something else. "Are you certain, your Highness?" asked   
Eirtae.  
  
"Quite certain." she said firmly. Really, what was the matter with   
everybody?   
  
She felt her first, faint qualm as she studied herself in the   
mirror. The bodice was *very* fitted, and showed a lot more skin than she'd   
expected. She bit her lip.  
  
"There's a capelet that goes with it, your Highness." Sache offered.   
  
That helped, and so did a jet choker with a strategic cascade of   
beads to hide her cleavage. *Don't be silly,* she told herself, *you're   
not showing any more skin than you were this afternoon. It'll be fine.*  
****  
  
And it was. Dinner went as easily and pleasantly as the afternoon.   
Anakin entertained her with stories of his Jedi adventures.  
  
"- When I got to them we went into...'aggressive negotiations'."  
  
"What's that?" Amidala interupted.   
  
"Uh...negotiations with a lightsabre." he admitted sheepishly.  
  
Amidala laughed. "I bet you're a very good 'negotiator', Ani."  
  
"Not that good." he answered ruefully. "I'm a much better pilot than   
swordsman. I'm working on it though, Master Dooku's been training   
Obi-Wan, Jacen and me in Form II."  
  
"In what?"  
  
"It's a very ancient technique for fighting sabre to sabre. Master   
Dooku's practically the only Jedi who knows it - the rest of us have   
been trained in later forms meant to counter blasters and the like. Well,   
you saw Master and Obi-Wan."  
  
"I certainly did!" Amidala would never forget the casual ease with   
which her two Jedi protectors had cut down scores of battle droids. "But   
nobody but Jedi use lightsabres these days."  
  
"Sith do." Anakin said quietly, looked at her steadily. "Obi-Wan   
killed the Apprentice, but the Master's still out there - and he's   
probably trained up a new Apprentice by now. Soon they're going to show their   
hand and we've got to be ready." he shivered. "*I've* got to be ready."  
  
"The Sith are everybody's problem, not just yours, Anakin." Amidala   
told him.  
  
But he shook his head, eyes on his plate. "I'm not a normal person,   
Padme. I didn't have a father, I was concieved directly by the Force to   
right the Balance." Blue eyes lifted to hers, troubled, scared. "The   
Dark Side is growing, spreading across the Galaxy like a black cloud.   
It's got to be the work of the Sith, and I've got to stop them - but I   
don't know how!"  
  
Amidala groped for something to say. "The Force will tell you how."  
  
He grimaced. "That's what Master says, when the time is right I'll   
know what to do. I must be patient."   
  
"I remember how he's always going on about being patient." Amidala   
said, and Anakin laughed.  
  
"Sometimes I think if I hear those words one more time I'll go   
nuts." he agreed. "I know he's right, but patience is *not* my best thing."  
  
"Mine either." Amidala grinned. She took a yellow pear from the   
platter of desert fruit, put it on her plate and sawed at it.  
  
"Here, let me." Anakin beckoned and the pear slid from beneath her   
knife and floated across the table to settle on his plate. "If Obi-Wan   
could see this he'd get very grumpy." he remarked as he sliced the pear,   
then sent a piece floating back to Amidala.  
  
She caught it on her fork, took a bite. "Really, why?"   
  
Anakin sent the rest of the sliced fruit floating back to her plate,   
picked up a bunch of grapes from his own desert platter. "The tricks   
come easily to me, too easily. Obi-Wan's afraid I'll become overconfident   
and get myself into trouble." he popped a grape into his mouth, chewed   
and swallowed. "He's probably right. I don't have anything like the   
discipline and control he does."   
  
Amidala smiled at him. "You admire Obi-Wan a great deal, don't you?"  
  
"He's the best Jedi of his generation." Anakin answered simply.   
"Maybe one of the greatest of all time - even Master Yoda thinks so." shook   
his head. "Chosen One or no, in some ways, a lot of ways, I'll never be   
as good as he is."  
  
"What about Master Qui-Gon?"  
  
Love, respect and a touch of awe all shone in Anakin's sudden,   
radiant smile. "Master's - different. Obi-Wan may be the perfect Jedi but   
Master is something more. He's gone far beyond the rest of us to a place   
we can only imagine. Complete oneness with the Force, perfect faith,   
perfect trust...it's what we all aim for, but Master's the only Jedi I   
know who's actually achieved it." a glint of humor broke the serious   
mood. "It makes him *very* hard to live with sometimes."  
  
"I remember!" Amidala said, and they both laughed.   
***  
  
It was very warm in the cozy little hearth room they retreated to   
after dinner. Amidala shed her capelet but it didn't seem to help,   
strange that so small a fire should put out so much heat.  
  
The easy mood of the afternoon and early evening gradually ebbed   
away. It became harder and harder to keep the conversation going. The   
flames reflected in those blue eyes were mesmerizing. She had no idea how   
long she'd been looking into them before she jerked back to her sense   
almost in a panic.  
  
"Anakin, no!" which was blatantly unfair, he hadn't done a thing.  
  
But he did now. "From the moment I met you, all those years ago, a   
day hasn't gone by when I haven't thought of you. And now that I'm with   
you again I'm in agony."  
  
She didn't want to hear this, she wanted to make him stop but she   
couldn't. He was saying exactly what she was feeling, every word echoed   
by her own heart.  
  
"The closer I get to you the worse it gets. The thought of not being   
with you makes my stomach turn over - my mouth go dry. I feel dizzy, I   
can't breath."  
  
Neither could she. She was panting for air as if she'd been running,   
the stupid gown she was wearing squeezing her chest, she couldn't get   
enough air into her lungs.  
  
"I am haunted by the kiss you never should have given me."  
  
She closed her eyes against the pain in his face. He was right. This   
was all her fault. She was older, more sophisticated, a Queen   
accustomed to governing her emotions as well as her planet. How could she have   
let this drag on so? She should have taken a firm line from the very   
begining! She felt his hand cup her cheek.   
  
"You are in my very soul, tormenting me. What can I do, I will do   
anything you ask."  
  
She jerked away, stumbled to her feet, putting some distance between   
them. His voice followed her.  
  
"If you are suffering as much as I am , tell me!"  
  
Oh no. That was the *last* thing she could tell him! She had to be   
firm, decisive, end this folly now. "...I can't...We can't...it's   
impossible." so weak, so faltering. She had to do better than this!  
  
Hope sprang up in his voice, eagerness. "Anything's possible! Padme,   
please listen -"  
  
"No! You listen." she whirled on him, he'd risen too but was now   
several paces away, her head felt clearer. She could say what had to be   
said now with the proper conviction. "We live in a real universe, come   
back to it! You are studying to become a Jedi Knight. I am Queen of   
Naboo. If you follow your thoughts through to conclusion they will take us   
to a place we cannot go - regardless of the way we feel about each   
other."  
  
His face lit up. "Then you do feel something!"  
  
Damn! Damn! Damn! she hadn't meant to admit that. Forged on   
determinedly. "Jedi are not allowed to marry. You'd be expelled from the Order.   
I will not let you give up your future for me!"  
  
"Do you think I want to feel like this?" he shouted back at her.   
"Believe me I wish I could wish my feelings away - but I can't!"  
  
She wasn't hot anymore but cold, cold right down to the marrow of   
her bones. She heard the chill in her voice as she said: "Queens aren't   
allowed to marry either. I'm not going to give up my throne on an   
emotional whim. I have more important things to do than fall in love!" she   
saw the hurt in his face. Hated herself for causing it, but forced   
herself to go on. "You do too. You're the Chosen One, Anakin, our hope   
against the Sith. You can't turn your back on your destiny!"  
  
A long, terrible silence. Slowly the calm, remote Jedi mask formed   
over his face. "You're right. I can't. I apologize your Highness, I   
should not have spoken as I did."  
  
"No, it's better that you did. Now we known exactly where we stand."   
She fought to keep her lips from trembling. She mustn't break down,   
mustn't cry. "I'm sorry, Ani."  
  
"It's not your fault, your Highness." bowed. "Good night, your   
Highness."   
  
She listened to his footsteps die away down the long marble floored   
corridor. Staggered over to the settee and collapsed next to the brown   
Jedi robe he'd left behind. She pulled it to her, wrapped it around   
herself. Cold, so cold. *Oh, Anakin!*  
***  
  
Blind with pain he somehow found his way outside, onto the terrace   
overlooking the gardens, *not* the one where they'd shared their first -   
and last - kiss. Gradually he became aware of his Master's presence.   
Serene, undemanding, immensely comforting.  
  
Swallowed hard, managed to get the words out. "Master, I'm in love   
with Padme."  
  
Gently. "That is not exactly news to me, Padawan."  
  
His face cracked in a painful grimace. "No, I've been pretty obvious   
haven't I?"  
  
"Fairly." a faint hint of amusement, quickly fading. "I'm sorry,   
Ani, I know how much it hurts."  
  
His Padawan shook his head. "You can't."  
  
A silence. The Master moved to lean casually on the railing beside   
Anakin, eyes on the moonlit garden below. "Can't I?" more silence. "You   
know Depa Billaba."  
  
Anakin blinked. "Yes, Master." He'd always liked the gentle   
Chalactan Councillor. Her dark eyes and soft voice reminded him of his mother -   
and had been a real comfort to a bereft, homesick little Padawan.  
  
"Many years ago, when she was a young knight and I not much older,   
we seriously considered leaving the Jedi - together."  
  
Anakin stared, well and truly jarred out of his slough of self-pity.   
"You and Councillor Billaba were in love?"  
  
The Master nodded, face unreadable, masked by a sharp chiascuro of   
shadow and moonlight. "Very much so."  
  
Anakin swallowed, asked hesitantly: "But..but you stayed?"  
  
Simply. "We agreed it was the will of the Force we remain in the   
Order. It was hard, and painful, but it was the right choice. We have no   
regrets." The Master's eyes caught the moonight, gleaming as he turned   
his head to study his Apprentice. "Do you feel you have made the right   
decision, Anakin?"  
  
"No - yes - I don't know!"  
  
Qui-Gon straightened, looked sternly at him. "Still your mind and   
listen for the Force. What is Its will?"  
  
Anakin closed his eyes. Disciplined himself to calm, focused. Said   
slowly. "The Force brought you to me on Tatooine. It is Its will that I   
learn the Jedi Way from you." opened his eyes to look at his Master   
with something like despair. "But it brought Padme and me together too. It   
wants me to be with her - I feel it. But I can't do both - it's   
impossible!"  
  
"Not at all." Qui-Gon said calmly. "It is the Force's will that I   
train you, and I will. Inside the Jedi Order - or outside of it."   
  
It took Anakin a moment or two to comprehend that, and when he did   
it all but took his breath away. "No! No, Master, I can't ask that of   
you!"  
  
Heavy eyebrows lifted slightly. "You have asked nothing of me,   
Anakin. The Force commands and we both obey."  
  
It wasn't that simple. He couldn't let his Master throw away a   
lifetime's commmitment, give up the only family, the only home he'd ever   
known, it was unthinkable. Suddenly Anakin understood very well why Padme   
had refused him. "It's not just my decision, Master. Padme doesn't want   
to. She says she has more important things to do than fall in love."  
  
Qui-Gon folded his lips into a grim line. "Queen Amidala has much to   
learn."  
***  
  
Jobal looked into the Queen's chamber to say good night to her   
daughter, only to find she had not yet come up to bed. Slightly concerned   
she searched the palace until she found Padme, huddled on a settee in a   
small hearth room, a brown Jedi robe clutched around her dispite the   
warmth.   
  
"Sweetheart?"  
  
Black eyes dilated in an ashen face turned blindly towards her.   
Jobal gasped, swept in to gather her child into her arms. "Oh my baby,   
what is it, what is it?"  
  
"Anakin...we can't...we can't...oh Mom, it hurts so much!" and she   
began to cry, wrackingly, despairingly, face buried in her mother's   
shoulder.   
  
Jobal rocked her, crooning foolish words of comfort, trying to hide   
her own despair. *Oh, Padme, Padme, why must you torture yourself so?   
Why - why, can't you put yourself first - just once? For that poor boy's   
sake as well as your own.*  
****  
  
A very concerned Eirtae had insisted Amidala take a sleeping draught   
when she finally came up to bed. For once she had acceeded gladly -   
anything to avoid lying awake all night with that scene in the hearth room   
going round and round in her head!  
  
As a consequence she slept much later than usual, waking the next   
morning feeling groggy and somehow unreal. Breakfast in bed, served by   
worried but decently restrained handmaidens, cleared her head a little   
but the feeling of unreality persisted.   
  
She pulled on a robe and wandered the halls of her palace retreat   
like ghost, and feeling every bit as insubstantial and detached. Drifted   
finally out onto the terrace overlooking the lake to find Anakin there,   
standing, eyes closed in meditation. She hesitated, started to turn   
back.  
  
"Don't go."  
  
"I don't want to disturb you."  
  
"Your presence is soothing."  
  
So she stayed and moved closer, hoping to pick up some of the   
centered calm and certainty radiating from him. But after a long moment he   
opened his eyes, looked down at her in concern.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
"I don't know." she put an unsteady hand to her forehead. "I feel so   
strange, Ani. My kingdom, the Republic, the crisis - they all seem so   
far away... unreal, like a dream."  
  
Frowning, looking really worried, he put his own hand over hers on   
her forehead. The frown deepened.  
  
"It's like when I was a little girl, studying at the Royal Academy."   
she realized. "I used to read the biographies of previous Kings and   
Queens, seep myself in their times and their troubles until it was like   
*I* was living them too. And when I had to stop reading, for a meal or a   
deportment class, I felt just like I do now - unreal. As if my life as   
Lady Amidala, student at the Royal Academy, was something out of a book   
and the life I'd been reading about was the real one." Suddenly she was   
terribly frightened. "What's wrong with me, Ani?"  
  
"You've had a bad shock, Padme, an emotional crisis," grimly, "which   
is my fault." she started to protest but he went on: "And the drug you   
took last night didn't help."   
  
"I couldn't have slept without it."  
  
"Probably not." he conceeded. He perched himself on the stone   
railing, bringing himself down to her eye level, and continued clinically.   
"Your real trouble is you're not one person but two; Queen Amidala of the   
Naboo and Padme Naberrie. For most of your life this hasn't been a   
problem, Padme was content to live Amidala's life. But that's changed, now   
she wants her turn. The disassociation you're experiencing is the   
result of the cleavage between your two selves; each pulling in a different   
direction." a quick grimace. "I haven't helped but I didn't cause the   
problem, this has been building for a long time - you just haven't let   
yourself notice."  
  
She tried to smile. "Padme's right, it *is* her turn." then tears   
filled her eyes. "But Amidala can't just walk away, not *now* of all   
times. Oh, Ani, what am I going to do?"  
  
He started to shake his head helplessly, then his eyes went over her   
shoulder - and he was pushing her aside, putting himself between her   
and a Red Guard, his force pike lowered to attack.   
  
The guardsman lunged and Amidala screamed in horror. But Anakin   
dodged aside, barely in time, and suddenly his sabre was blazing in his   
hand, though he certainly hadn't been wearing it. He circled, trying to   
draw the guardsman away from her but it didn't work. The man turned on   
her, but Anakin was between them again catching the pike on his blade.  
  
The brief fight was too fast for her untrained eye to follow but   
suddenly the Red Guard was down, disarmed, and Anakin bending over him.  
  
She lowered the hands she'd had pressed over her mouth, tried to   
find her voice. But then Anakin was spinning away from the man and   
sprinting towards her. He caught her up in his arms and sprang onto the   
railing then off it - and a blast of wind and heat blew them, tumbling, far   
out over the lake before they finally hit the water.   
  
Amidala must have blacked out for a few seconds. When she came to,   
she was secure in the curve of Anakin's arm, being towed with strong   
firm strokes towards the palace pier. "Ani -"  
  
"Easy, Padme, I've got you, everything's going to be all right."  
  
The odd thing was she believed him. Anakin hoisted her onto the   
pier, then pulled himself up beside her. Panting she pushed wet hair out of   
her face, saw black smoke rising from the ruins of the terrace above   
them, and her parents, handmaidens and others running towards them.   
  
Ruwee and Jobal reached them first. "I'm all right." she gasped,   
half smothered by her parents' frantic embrace. "I'm fine." then abruptly   
panic smote her. "The children! Where are the children?"  
****  
  
"Fortunately the children had been taken for a picnic on the   
island. The attempted assassin was the only casualty. Her Royal Highness and   
my Padawan were shaken but unhurt."  
  
The holograph of Chancellor Palpatine looked sick. "One of my own   
men, I can't believe it. I picked every one of those boys personally.   
I've known some of them all their lives -"  
  
"The man was not acting on his own volition, your Excellency,"   
Qui-Gon assured him, "but on an implanted compulsion. It was the conflict in   
his mind as he tried to fight it that alerted Anakin." continued   
crisply. "Lieutenant Farang has confined himself and his men to quarters as   
we have no way of knowing how many of them might be effected." another   
pause, then gently: "Your Excellency, we don't know who did this or   
when. The entire Red Guard may have been suborned - you could be in   
considerable danger."  
  
Palpatine buried his head in his hands. "This is a nightmare!" took   
a deep breath, looked up. "What do you recomend, Master Jedi?"  
  
"That you disband the Red Guard at once and send its members off   
Coruscant." quickly, seeing the protest in the Chancellor's face. "It's   
for their own good as well as your safety, Excellency. Isolated from   
possible triggers the compulsion will dissipate in time."  
  
Palpatine massaged his temples. "I see your point, Master Jedi, but   
what possible reason can I give for such a drastic move? Certainly not   
the truth! From what you say my boys are morally blameless and I won't   
have their careers ruined by this."  
  
"I understand, sir." Qui-Gon considered, then said carefully. "The   
Red Guard has always been - controversial. You could say you've decided   
to disband it as a gesture of conciliation."  
  
A tired semblance of a smile. "Yes, that would work." grimly,   
certainly there will be no problem finding good posts for my poor boys with   
the Republic in the state it's in." frowned at Qui-Gon. "And what of her   
Majesty? If my own guard has been compromised then who can we trust?"  
  
"No one." the Master agreed, equally grimly. "I intend to isolate   
her Highness, along with her handmaidens and her parents, in the Keep of   
Forst - your Excellency knows the place?"  
  
"Of course - I am a Naboo! Nothing and no one could reach her there.   
Especially with two Jedi on guard."  
  
Qui-Gon bowed. "Exactly, your Excellency." a pause. "If I may ask -   
has there been any word from Master Kenobi?"  
  
"Nothing specific, but according to your Council he is making   
progress. They expect to have a report for me very shortly."   
  
"That is good to hear. Hopefully this will all be over soon."  
  
"I certainly hope so, I can't take much more of this!" Palpatine   
produced another weak semblance of a smile. "Please tell her Majesty how   
relieved I am she is safe, and that I am very sorry."  
****  
  
"It's not his fault. Or even that poor guard's." Amidala shivered.   
"Who could do such a thing?"  
  
"A Sith." Anakin answered grimly, shivered in turn. "The stench of   
the Dark Side was all over him - but he's free of it now. The corruption   
came from outside, not from within, the Force recieved him."  
  
Amidala wasn't altogether sure what that meant but for some reason   
it comforted her. She turned back to the Master. "So you want to set   
Sache up as the target again."  
  
"That *is* my job, your Highness." Sache said, before Qui-Gon could   
answer. Grinned. "Besides, it's fun to order Eirtae and Rabe around."   
the other two handmaidens mock glared at her.  
  
They were in Amidala's huge bedroom, the Queen lying on the bed with   
her handmaidens grouped on one side, the Jedi facing her on the other,   
and her parents sitting on the bed itself, Jobal holding her hand.  
  
"But what about Padme?" Ruwee demanded. "If she's not to go with us   
to Forst where is she going?"  
  
"To Anakin's family on Tatooine." the Master answered.   
  
"But won't that be dangerous for them?" Amidala asked Anakin.  
  
He shrugged. "How? Nobody will know you're there." reassuringly to   
Ruwee and Jobal. "My stepfather's moisture farm is way out in the   
backlands, far from the Hutts, and I'll be with her - just in case."   
****  
  
They broke through into normal space near a red planet surounded by   
a cloud of asteroids. "Well here we are." said Obi-Wan. "Wherever here   
may be."  
  
Jacen glanced at his computer readout. "Geonosis, Master."   
  
"A Seperatist world." Obi-Wan mused. "So Queen Amidala's 'feeling'   
was correct."  
  
The Jedi fighter disingaged from its booster ring and orbited   
towards the planet, still tracking Fett, a bright green dot on the fighter's   
scanner. Abruptly it changed direction. "Uh-oh. I think Fett's spotted   
us, Master, he's veering into the asteroid field."  
  
"A daring tactic." Obi-Wan observed. "Keep on him, Padawan."  
  
Jacen did, pulling closer as concealment was no longer necessary.   
Fett was good but - "He won't be able to keep this up long."   
  
"No." his Master agreed. "Keep an eye out for - sonic charge!"  
  
The fighter spiralled away from the glittering, oncoming device. It   
detonated with a flash and Jacen opened her up full throttle, dodging   
the debris of smashed asteroids as well as the wavefront of the sonic   
pulse. But he didn't lose Fett.  
  
"Here we go again." said Jacen as the Bounty Hunter released a   
second charge. He looped around the expanding blast field, eluding whizzing   
meteors, and was right back on Fett's tail. "Shall I fire, Master?"  
  
Before Obi-Wan could answer the Bounty Hunter's ship ducked into a   
crater in on of the larger asteroids. "Follow him."   
  
"It's a trap, Master." said Jacen, obeying.  
  
"Of course. But we can't risk losing him now."  
  
The fighter twisted through the labyrinthine interior of the   
asteroid, emerged on the far side - and were surrounded by a sleet of hot gold   
blaster fire as Fett swooped down on them from behind. Jacen evaded,   
barely.  
  
"Blast! This is why I hate flying."  
  
"Sorry, Master."  
  
He could feel Obi-Wan's smile, though he couldn't see it. "That was   
a general observation, not a criticism, Padawan. We knew we were flying   
into an ambush."  
  
Arfour shrieked in electronic alarm as a glancing strike on the   
starboard wing just missed him.  
  
"Steady Arfour." said Jacen.  
  
"Ah, he's releasing a homing torpedo. Excellent." said the Master   
calmly.  
  
Jacen hit the emergency boosters, weaving among the rolling   
asteroids, the torpedo hot on their tail.   
  
"And he's not pursuing - even better. A little more distance please,   
Padawan."  
  
Jacen didn't bother to acknowledge the command, his attention fully   
occupied.  
  
A pair of huge, cratered rocks rolled into their path, little more   
than a hairspace between them - but enough.  
  
"Arfour, prepare to jettison the spare parts cannisters." Obi-Wan   
ordered, a beat. "Release them now!"  
  
And the flat silhouetted Jedi fighter streaked between the two   
asteroids as space exploded behind it.  
  
Jacen knew what to do. He grappled onto the nearest large rock and   
killed everything but basic life support. Breathing and pulse had just   
enough time to return to normal before Obi-Wan spoke.  
  
"I think we've waited long enough. Follow him in, Padawan."  
  
"Yes, Master."  
  
"Very well done, Jacen."  
  
"Thank you, Master." 


	8. Tatooine

"At least I feel real again." Padme told the whited out hyperspace outside the port.

"There is nothing quite like a brush with death for focusing one's attention here and now." Anakin agreed.

She looked at him, sitting beside her in the pilot's seat. He grinned, suddenly looking amazingly like the mischievous little boy she remembered. "This is one sweet ship. Where'd you get her, Padme, and what do you do use her for?"

"Our usual supplier, Nubian Shipbuilders, customized by our own engineers of course." she answered. "She's a royal courier ship. These last few years she's spent most of her time ferrying my representatives to and from the moons."

"Negotiating with the miners." said Anakin.

"For all the good it's done." she agreed gloomily.

He shook his head. "They're being used, Padme, manipulated by the Sith. Just like the Trade Federation ten years ago." grimly. "And I thought Naboo would be safe."

"So did I." said Padme sadly. "Ani, I don't want to endanger your family."

"You won't." he assured her. "The only people, besides you and me, who know you're going to Tatooine are locked up under Master's eye."

"What about the ground crew?" she asked. He looked guilty and it dawned on her: "You mindtricked them didn't you?" she accused.

"Well, yes. But don't worry, if anybody notices the ship's missing Master will explain everything. They won't get into any trouble."

She frowned, she didn't like the idea of meddling with innocent people's minds. But - after all - this was an emergency. Ani'd really had no choice. "I understand."

Tatooine shone hot gold in the light of its twin suns, very different from Naboo's gentle greens and blues.

Anakin brought the ship down on a salt flat. All that showed of the homestead above ground was a small dome sheltering the entrance, the metal roof of the garage and a sunken courtyard. Padme followed him down the ramp, folded into a hooded cloak against the harsh desert sun. She saw a droid working nearby. "Ani, is that -?"

"Cee Threepio? It certainly is. Mom got some coverings for him. The plates don't all match but it's better than nothing."

Intent upon his acrimonious conversation with a tempermental vaporator the Droid not only failed to notice the ship landing, but didn't hear them approaching.

"Hello, Threepio." said Anakin.

Finally he looked up, and did a comical double-take. "Master Ani? And surely it's Miss Padme!"

She smiled. "Nice to see you again Threepio."

"Oh how exciting." he said happily. "We don't get much company way out here you know." raised his voice. "Mistress Shmi, Miss Beru, look who's here!"

And sure enough there was Shmi, running to Ani's arms, followed by a pretty girl with light brown hair braided and pinned in tight little knots atop her head. She and Padme smiled rather shyly at each other.

"You said you'd come back but so soon?" Shmi was saying to her son. "Where is Master Qui-Gon, is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid I'm the problem." Padme answered for him. "Just like the last time."

"You're a queen?" Beru asked, staring wide eyed at this girl, surely not much older than herself.

Padme nodded, a little ruefully. "I'm afraid so."

"Of course we've heard of Amidala of Naboo." said Cleig Lars, Shmi's husband. He was a burly, blunt featured man with piercing blue eyes that reminded Padme of somebody she couldn't quite place. His son Owen, Beru's fiancee, looked just like him.

Cleig sat at the head of the stone table in the open dining room, Shmi at it's foot, with Owen and Beru on one side and Anakin and Padme on the other.

Ani grinned at her. "There you are, Padme. You know you're famous when they've even heard of you on Tatooine!" turned back to his stepfather. "I don't believe there'll be any danger, neither the Hutts nor the assassin knows she's here. But if you'd rather we could stay at the old hermitage on the edge of the dune sea."

"Don't talk nonsense, son." Cleig answered gruffly. "Family's family, and the Hutts don't care what happens in the back country."

Padme just hoped Anakin was right about there being no risk. Logically she didn't see how there could be - but she wasn't feeling terribly logical, more scared and hunted. She'd thought Naboo was safe too.

"It won't be for long," Anakin was saying confidently. "According to the Chancellor Obi-Wan's making real progress tracking down whoever's behind the assassins."

"Who?" Cleig asked in an oddly strained voice. His expression was strange too - stunned, but grieved or angry under it, Padme couldn't decide which.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." Ani explained, eyeing his stepfather curiously. "Another Jedi Knight and a friend of mine. Do you know him?"

"He's my son." Cleig said flatly. Continued bitterly as they all gaped at him. "And no, I don't know him. The Jedi took him away from us when he was a baby."

"You never told me I had a brother!" said Owen.

"You don't." his father answered. "He's not ours any more. Your mother and I didn't see any point in talking about him since we'd never see him again."

"You could." Both Larses looked at Anakin. "There's no rule against Jedi contacting their families once they've become Knights and many do. I'm sure Obi-Wan would want to meet you both."

"He has your eyes." Padme said, suddenly realizing why Cleig's clear blue gaze had seemed so incongruously familiar.

His face twisted in something like pain. "I don't know. I'll have to think about it."

Anakin nodded understanding. "We can't do anything about it now anyway."

"Here let me help you with those." Padme scooped the top layer of dishes off the pile in Beru's arms and followed her into the kitchen to help load them in the washer. She could feel the other girl eyeing her when she wasn't looking and finally caught her at it. Beru blushed and Padme laughed.

"Don't look so surprised. I know how to wash dishes, and cook and clean and sew and all the rest."

Beru looked bewildered. "But...but you're a queen."

"Yes I am, but royalty on Naboo isn't like on, oh - say Alderaan or Omuud, you aren't born to it. I was just a farm girl like you."

Beru looked even more confused. "I don't understand."

"It is a little complicated." Padme conceded. The dishwasher finished cycling. She opened the door and started to unload it, handing the dishes to Beru to be put away. "You see thousands of years ago Naboo was a sanctuary planet, a place where nobles and royals could go to escape their enemies. Unfortunately they brought their feuds with them and all the fighting nearly destroyed our world.

"So finally the people, and a good many of the nobles and royals too, rose up against the troublemakers and defeated them and we set up a new democratic government." she grinned at Beru. "But it was boring. We missed the good things about having royalty, the color and pageantry. So we brought it back, but in a different form; nowadays you go to a special school to learn how to be royal, then you run for election to a throne, and if you win you rule for ten or fifteen years then abdicate.

"That's why our royalty is always very young." she continued seriously. "Royal duty is a terrible burden and the idea is to get it over with while you're young and have the rest of your life for yourself."

Beru put the last dishes away, took two damp cloths from the sink and handed one to Padme. "But how do you decide who goes to this school?"

"Recommendations are made to a board of former royals." Padme answered as the two girls began wiping down the counters. "They study the candidates and vote on them, and then send a letter the parents offering a scholarship to the Royal Academy. They usually accept, it's a great honor to be asked and a very good education too. But a lot of students don't last out the first year."

"Really?"

"Really. It's hard, especially when you're little. You have to wear formal robes practically all the time and you must always be polite and gracious no matter how you feel. The classes in etiquette and deportment are murder, not to mention the history, political science, diplomacy, psychology and about a hundred other things."

"You have to have a bit of the playactor in you to stand it." Padme continued thoughtfully, handing her dirty cloth to Beru who put it with hers in a sort of mini-vaporator to reclaim the water. "Dedication alone isn't enough. Part of you has to enjoy the dressing up and the ceremonies and speechmaking."

"Do you?" Beru asked intrigued.

"Not so much anymore." Padme admitted. "It's really begun to wear on me over the last year or so. Which should be all right, since custom says it's time for me to abdicate, except that I don't see how I can between our own local problems and secession crisis. It would feel like deserting my post, and not be very fair to my successor either."

"How long have you been queen?" Beru asked.

"Ten years now." Padme sighed. "I guess I can put off abdicating another year or two if I absolutely have to without trashing our constitution. But I can't say I like the idea."

Beru frowned. "Ten years? How old are you?"

"Twenty-four, I was fourteen when I was elected queen."

The other girl's eyes went round. "Fourteen! How old were you when you went to this school?"

"Six. That's the usual age, six or seven."

"You're kidding!"

Padme shook her head. "No. I told you the idea was to do your duty young and get it over with."

"But six!"

"It's easier to adjust when you're very young too." Padme explained. "Somebody your age, who's used to a whole different way of life, would have a terrible time. My sisters are always telling me they can't see how I stand it, but it's not so bad if you've been living the royal life almost as long as you can remember."

"Sounds like the Jedi."

Padme blinked. "What?"

"That's just what Anakin said about Jedi training, that it had to start as early as possible so the acolyte would have less to unlearn." said Beru.

"It's not the same thing at all." Padme assured her earnestly. "Jedi are much more disciplined than we are. And we can go home on visits they can't."

"No." Beru agreed quietly. "I've always felt so sorry for Shmi, losing Anakin like that, but at least she had a chance to know him, and for him to know her. What happened to Cleig and his first wife was much worse I think."

Padme bit her lip. "I know what you mean. It was hard enough on my parents, sending me off to live in Theed even though they could come and see me. To have to give up your baby must be awful. But it's easier on the child, a baby won't be homesick or cry for her mother at night."

"Did you?"

"Oh yes, all my first year. And I know how hard it was for Anakin to leave Shmi."

"Obi-Wan never had anything to miss." Beru said quietly. "Maybe that's worse."

The idea struck Padme with almost painful force. Was never having a mother worse than losing her? "Maybe it is, I don't know."

"What's he like?"

"Obi-Wan?" Padme thought. "Not much like Owen or Cleig to look at, except for the eyes, a completely different kind of face. He wears his hair long and has a beard like Master Jinn. Very cool and quiet on the surface but incredibly intense underneath. He has a nice dry sense of humor, though I've never seen much of it. But then I only see him when I'm his assignment and we're both in trouble. I don't know what he's like off duty. Anakin would though." she remembered what Ani had told her on Naboo. "Anakin says Obi-Wan's a very great Jedi, he admires him immensely."

"I'd like to meet him." said Beru, then bit her lip and looked towards the kitchen door. Cleig's voice and Anakin's drifted faintly down the passage from the living room. "But I don't know if it's really a good idea for him to come. There's no way to make up for all the time he and Cleig and Owen have lost. Maybe seeing each other would just upset them all."

Padme tried to imagine how cool, collected, always controlled Obi-Wan would feel about meeting his long lost father and brother, but couldn't. She simply didn't know him well enough. "I guess they'll have to decide for themselves if they want to risk it.


	9. Geonosis

Geonosis was a planet of arid red plains dotted with rugged buttes and mesas and the occasional giant stalagmite. It seemed entirely uninhabited - except for whatever was making those eerie cries.

"First Kamino now this." Jacen commented in a voice carefully pitched to reach Obi-Wan's ears and no farther. "Why don't we ever go anywhere nice, Master?"

His teacher smiled faintly. "Because 'nice' planets don't need Jedi, Padawan. Now let's get a closer look at those Trade Federation ships."

The journey, along a steep narrow path with a drop of several hundred feet on one side, was not uneventful. About halfway to their goal they were attacked by a pair of slavering, fanged lizard creatures attacking from both front and rear. Obi-Wan was knocked flat by the first but managed to ignite his sabre and thrust it through the open jaws into the miniscule brain, killing it instantly. Jacen cut the second in half, mid-leap, and the body tumbled in to the gulf. Neither Jedi bothered to comment on the incident, saving their breath for climbing.

The top of the butte gave them a spectacular view of a city of red stone towers, as twisted and tormented in form as any stalagmite. And, chillingly, line after line of globular Trade Federation ships.

"This is not good." Obi-Wan understated. "Follow me, Jacen." and he stepped calmly off into space dropping towards the plain far below. His Padawan grimaced, grumbled; "I hate heights." and obeyed.

They gained the shelter of the city before a dusty red sunrise robbed them of cover, slipping in through a providentially open door. They quickly found themselves on a walkway encircling a deep wellshaft. Far below winged, horse faced aliens worked hard at multiple assembly lines turning out row after row of battle droids.

"Just keeps getting better doesn't it?" Jacen breathed to his Master.

Obi-Wan nodded absently, frowning into the middle distance. A moment later Jacen felt it too - a movement of the Force, a very familiar disturbance that he'd felt many, many times before. He looked at his Master in alarm.

"This way." said Obi-Wan.

The two Jedi crouched in a convenient nook as a pair of Genosians, similar to the workers in the factory but far better dressed, and a tall hooded figure in flowing black robes walked past them to meet Nute Gunray, accompanied by several aids, four battle droids weapons at ready - and Master Dooku!

The old Master inclined his silver head in regal acknowledgement. "Madame Moore."

Jacen just managed not to gasp. Obi-Wan's face froze.

"You do not sound surprised, Master Dooku." the familiar whispery voice answered from the shelter of the hood. "Can it be you guessed the truth?"

"Not a guess," he corrected, "a certainty. The Viceroy gave you away."

Nute began to babble denials. The Master silenced him with a chill, dark glance. "Oh not deliberately. But he looked to you, Madame Moore, for guidance when I spoke of the Sith. That was enough."

"More than enough." the Sith Witch agreed. She put back her hood and directed an even darker look at the cowering Viceroy, then turned to the Geonosian beside her. "Confine the Jedi, Archduke Poggle, and guard him well. He might be useful - as bait at least."

The second Geonosian, the battle droids and their prisoner went one way. Sly Moore, the Archduke, the Viceroy and his entourage the other, with Gunray babbling apologies and excuses to the impassive Sith.

"Jacen." the younger Jedi looked at his Master. "Get back to the ship," Obi-Wan mouthed, barely vocalizing for fear of being heard. "Report what you've seen to the Council. The Chancellor must be warned."

"What about you?" Jacen breathed in return.

The Master set his mouth grimly. "I'm going after Dooku."

"But Master -" Jacen began - too late. Obi-Wan slipped from hiding without waiting for a reply and flitted after Dooku and his guards. "So much for 'prudent and judicious." Jacen muttered to himself. and headed in the opposite direction.

He soon caught up with the Sith and her retinue. They turned into an open archway, and after a moment's hesitation Jacen followed. Why should Master have all the fun? The side passage led to a conference room and the sight of the other beings sitting around the table all but froze Jacen's blood.

No less than three senators rose respectfully at the Sith Witch's entrance; Po Nudo, Tessek and Toonbuck Toora. Jacen also recognized representatives of the Techno League, the Corporate Alliance, the Commerce Guild, and the Banking Clans. This was not good. In fact it was very, very bad.

As Sly Moore took her seat at the head of the table an armored figure emerged from the shadows to take up station behind her - Jango Fett! "Well gentlebeings, have you made your decision?" she asked softly. "As you see the Trade Federation has already pledged its support. When the Federation's Droid army is combined with yours we shall command the greatest military force in the Galaxy. The Jedi will be overwhelmed and the Republic will have no choice but to agree to our demands."

"I am authorized by the Corporate Alliance to sign the treaty." said that representative.

Sly Moore inclined her bald head. "Thank you, Chairman, we are most grateful for your co-operation."

"The Commerce Guilds do not at this time wish to become openly involved." said their ambassador. "But we shall support you in secret - and look forward to doing business with you."

"That will be quite sufficient." said Sly Moore.

"The Banking Clan will support you wholeheartedly, but only in a non-exclusive arrangement." said a preternaturally thin, grey skinned being.

The cyborg on the other side of the table adjusted his vocorder, causing a squeal of feedback before he was able to articulate: "The Techno Union is at your disposal, Lady Sinistra."

Jacen's eyes went wide at the name. If Jango Fett had been telling the truth then it was a Sith who'd recruited him as host for the Clone Army. Which meant that it was the Sith who'd ordered it in the first place in the name of the Jedi Council! This just gets worse and worse, I've got to warn the Council.

Obi-Wan flitted soundlessly from pillar to pillar, slowly catching up with the prisoner detachment. He had seen at once that something was seriously wrong with Dooku; the old Master was maintaining his usual composure only with considerable effort and his Force sense was off - weakened somehow. What had they done to him?

So intent was he on what was happening ahead of him that he sensed the destroyer droid behind a split second too late.

He woke, head pounding from the effects of a heavy stun, on a cold stone floor looking up at the mirror-like dome of a total exclusion field.

"There is such a thing as being too focused. Obi-Wan." a familiar dark velvet voice said mildly.

He turned his head to see Dooku sitting on a sort of low shelf or bench running right around the sunken, circular space. "Yes, Master." he sat up, suppressing a groan, frowned at the old Jedi. "Are you all right."

"No, I'm afraid not." Dooku answered a little grimly. Taking his hands from his sleeves he showed the charred burns scoring his palms.

Obi-Wan scrambled to his feet, headache forgotten. "What happened, Master? Some kind of torture?"

Dooku shook his head with a thin smile. "No, I merely blocked a few blaster bolts."

"You're supposed to use your sabre for that." Obi-Wan pointed out.

"Unfortunately I didn't have my sabre with me at the time."

"Do I want to know?" Obi-Wan inquired rhetorically of the universe at large.

Dooku smiled, strain a little less evident. "Probably not."

The younger Jedi sighed, settled himself cross legged in front of the Master. "Let me see what I can do."

Dooku gave him his hands and both closed their eyes, slipping into Force rapport.

How did you do this? Obi-Wan asked silently as he probed the damage.

I was providing a diversion so Captain Dodonna and Sly Moore could escape with the news the Sith are behind the Separatists.

But you knew Sly Moore was a Sith!

However Dodonna is not and if she was to keep her cover she had no choice but to let him carry the warning. Obi-Wan, where is Jacen?

Back at our ship by now sending word of what's happening here to the Council - I hope.

Indeed. Let us hope he shows more prudence and judgment than his Master.

"There's got to be a way to boost the signal." Jacen said in frustration, probing at the blasted circuitry of the fighter's transmitter.

Arfour bleeped a firm but apologetic negative.

"But we've got to get through!" a thought struck. "Wait a minute, Master Qui-Gon and Anakin are on Naboo. That's pretty close. See if we can get through to them."

It worked. Master Qui-Gon was able to relay the transmission to the Temple and they in turn sent it directly to the Chancellor's office where he was meeting with the leaders of both the pro and anti militarist factions and members of the Jedi Council.

"We tracked the bounty hunter Jango Fett to the droid founderies on Geonosis." Jacen reported. "Master Dooku is here too, as a prisoner. Master Obi-Wan went to rescue him but they havn't come back and I'm afraid he's been caught too. The Geonosians are building an army for the Trade Federation. Viceroy Gunray is behind the attacks on Queen Amidala. The Corporate Alliance, the Commerce Guild, the Banking Clan and the Techno-League are also involved. But they and the Separatists are all under the control of -" He turned his head sharply, somebody was coming. "Uh - oh."

Far away on Coruscant the watching Jedi, Senators and Chancellor saw Jacen's image disappear in static.

"He's been located." Mace said grimly.

Yoda frowned at the now empty holo platform. "More happening on Geonosis, I feel, than has been revealed."

"I agree." said Mace. "Qui-Gon," the Master's holo-image appeared on the platform. "We will deal with the situation on Geonosis. The Queen's safety remains your first priority. Stay close to her, protect her at all costs."

"I understand."

Mace frowned at the hologram. It was unlike Qui-Gon to assent so readily, especially with his old Master and former Padawan at risk. But then Qui-Gon was a Jedi, he understood his duty must come first. "We will get them back, my friend," he said gently, "I promise."

"I know you will. Thank you, Mace." Qui-Gon bowed and vanished.

"The debate is over!" Senator Ask Aak of the militarists said with undisguised satisfaction. "Now we need that Clone Army."

"Unfortunately the debate is not over." Bail Organa snapped. "The Senate will never approve the use of the Clones before the Separatists attack."

"This is a crisis!" Mas Amedda cried. "The Senate must vote the Chancellor emergency powers, he could then order the Clone army into action."

"No." Palpatine said firmly. "I will not sanction such an unconstitutional measure, and no senator would propose it."

"I would." said Jamillia grimly.

"My Lady!" the Chancellor protested, clearly astonished. "Naboo has always worked for peace. This would be a declaration of war."

"War is upon us, your Excellency." she answered. "We have lost the fight for peace, now we must have the means to defend ourselves."

"Yes." said General Binks equally firmly. "Gungans and Naboo peaceful people as yousa Honor says, but when wesa were invaded wesa fought!"

"Call an emergency session of the Senate, Chancellor." said Jamillia. "And we will do what must be done to save the Republic."


	10. An Outing to Anchorhead

Anakin sat slumped at the Lars' dining room table in the grey desert dawn watching his mother sort the mushrooms she had gathered from the vaporators near the house. "Even if I were to leave the Jedi - which I can't for Master's sake - Padme would never abandon her duty to Naboo for me or anything else in the universe." he explained, then sighed in discouragement. "I don't know what to do, this is the first time the Force has ever asked me for something I can't give It."

"But Ani, must it be now?" Shmi asked, puzzled. "Can't you and Padme wait until after you've fulfilled your other responsibilities?"

Her son stared at her. "Wait." he echoed blankly, then the word sank in and he laughed a little hysterically. "Wait! Of course we can wait, it's been ten years already what's a few more?" he jumped up, paced the length of the little room twice, then standing in the open archway laughed again. "Oh, Mom, the universe is in big trouble; the Sith are rising and the Chosen One is an idiot!"

"No, just young. And perhaps a little bit impatient." Shmi smiled.

"More than a little bit." he shook his head. "I can't believe I got myself all worked up over this, the answer should have been obvious: Once I pass the trials I can leave the Order without it reflecting on anybody but me. Master will have finished his job and not feel he has to come too, and Padme means to abdicate in a year or two anyway so that's all right. All we have to do is wait and everything will come out just as the Force intended. " he grinned at Shmi. "But it took my mother to see it. Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome son."

Padme had unpacked practically her entire trunk searching for something suitable to wear but none of the bright garments scattered around the small bedroom she shared with Beru seemed plain enough for Tatooine.

"Don't you have any simple things?" Beru asked, fingering the amber colored silk of the dress draped over her knees.

"These are simple things - for me." Padme said helplessly.

Beru held up the yellow gown, with its high waist and slashed sleeves and edging of winking green and gold sequins. "It looks like a queen's dress."

"I'm afraid it does." Padme agreed discouraged. "They all do."

"Well they are a queen's dresses after all," Beru said reasonably, then frowned. "It wouldn't matter if nobody but family was going to see you, but this is the fallow season and neighbors will be dropping by ."

"Maybe I should just stay in my room." Padme said.

"You'd die of boredom and Naboo would probably declare war on Tatooine or something." Beru answered. She put aside the golden silk and reached for a colorful short tunic decorated with tassels. "This isn't too impossible. Do you have a skirt or something to go with it?"

Padme went down to breakfast in the tunic, worn over a long straight chemise of thin, crinkly linen with no jewelry and only a pair of combs to hold back her curly hair. Beru, to help her feel less conspicuous, had put on one of her own best outfits; a pale yellow tunic edged with blue and green embroideries over a long blue skirt all of much finer cloth than her usual work clothes.

Cleig grinned at the sight of them. "You two look much too pretty to sit around the house all day."

"I agree." Owen said promptly, eyes fixed appreciatively on Beru. "What do you say we go into Anchorhead for the day?"

Padme looked at Anakin, a little alarmed.

"Why not." he said promptly, then smiled reassuringly at her. "Anchorhead's a much more respectable place than Mos Espa with no Hutt agents to worry about. They don't know I'm a Jedi either."

"Everybody in town thinks Anakin's a gypsy spacer," Owen explained, "Master Qui-Gon thought it was better that way."

"Rumors of Jedi might attract Hutt attention, and nobody wants that." said Anakin. He grinned at her; "And you can be my off-world girlfriend, Padme."

For a moment she was perturbed, but then reminded herself they'd talked it all out and Anakin had agreed it was impossible for them to ever be more than friends. Maybe joking about it made it easier for him.

"Sure." she said as lightly as she could. "But maybe I'd better not be from Naboo, just in case."

Anakin nodded. "Right, you can be my girl from Corellia. Nobody in Anchorhead will know the difference."

Owen changed into a red and tan outfit more in keeping with a festive outing than his usual drab work clothes. Anakin seemed to feel leaving behind his Jedi robe and lightsabre was all the disguise he needed.

Cleig and Shmi were to stay at home. "We'll find something here to keep us busy." Cleig said, with a wink at his wife that made Padme's stomach twist with an emotion she barely dared recognize as envy.

"What do you say we take the Swope Bikes?" Anakin suggested as they entered the garage.

"What do you say we take the skimmer," Owen countered, "and I'm driving!"

Both girls laughed, then looked at each other. Obviously Beru had had a dose of Anakin Skywalker's piloting too.

"You sound just like Obi-Wan." Anakin said, sliding into the back seat of the closed skimmer next to Padme.

Owen shot a quick, interested look over his shoulder as he started the vehicle. "He doesn't like your driving either, huh?"

"To put it mildly."

"Sounds like my brother is a sensible man." said Owen.

Anchorhead was the trading and transport hub for the moisture farms and dewback ranches of the southeastern Jundland. Normally it was little more than a cluster of adobe buildings baking in the twin suns but today it was bright with color and bustling with activity. In the fallow season after the harvest the farmers and ranchers had money to spare and scores of itinerate peddlers descended on outlying towns like Anchorhead to help them spend it.

Their booths and tents lined the main street and the regular shops behind them competed with racks of new goods set out on the dusty sidewalks to tempt customers inside. Not all the traders were humans. Small brown robed creatures were everywhere fingering, and being chased away from the merchandise on display or standing hopefully next to rows of battered droids and bits of salvaged machinery.

Suddenly Beru clutched at Owen's arm. "I don't believe it, Sand People!" she was staring at a group of tall humanoids, at least Padme assumed they were humanoids from their shape but it was impossible to tell for sure as their bodies were completely enveloped in robes of sand colored cloth and their faces hidden behind yards of wrapped bandages or metal and hide masks. They were sitting or standing silent and motionless by bales of intricately patterned carpets in shades of brown and tan and yellow.

"I've heard of them coming in to trade for metal, but not often." said Owen. "Usually they steal it instead." he looked at Anakin. "Seems your truce is holding."

"It'll hold as long as Urglu is chief." his stepbrother answered. "however long that is."

"I remember Sand People shooting at the pods at the race." said Padme. "I gathered they were usually hostile."

"Mostly yeah." Anakin agreed. "When Master and I were here a few weeks ago they were all stirred up, had this notion the Settlers had deliberately desecrated one of their sacred wells -"

"Like anybody on Tatooine would be that stupid." Owen put in.

"Yeah, must have been off-worlders but we'll never know who." Anakin resumed: "Anyway they were getting real aggressive so Master and I went out to talk to them -"

"We were horrified," said Beru. "we were sure Ani and Master Jinn would be killed."

"Settling disputes is what Jedi do." Anakin explained to his future sister-in-law. "Anyway," he continued to Padme, "we had a real stroke of luck. Years ago, when I was just a kid, I shared my water and campfire with an injured Raider, and who should he turn out to be but the new chief of the local clans."

"I thought Jedi didn't believe in luck." Padme teased.

Anakin shurgged. "Luck, the Force, just two different names for the same thing. Anyway Urglu owed me one so he was willing to listen, and Master and I managed to convince him the Settlers had nothing to do with the desecration. Then Master re-consecrated the well so the whole tribe owed him big time and we had the leverage to negotiate a truce."

"I think I'll get some of those carpets." said Beru. But since Sand People have no use for money first she had to buy some scrap metal from the Jawas.

Unlike the Jawas the Tuskens bargained silently. Beru put down pieces of metal and when she'd put down enough another carpet would be rolled up and handed to her. She got six; two medium sized, one very large, and two small. Beru was especially pleased with one carpet beautifully patterned in tones of ochre and yellow. "We don't put rugs on the floors here," she explained to Padme, "the sand would ruin them in no time. We hang them on the walls or use them as throws. This one will make a lovely coverlet for our bed." then she looked at Owen and their eyes locked.

Padme felt another bitter twist of envy. It wasn't fair, everybody else could be with the person they loved, but not her - she cut the thought off. 'Stop it! You sound like a child.'

"I'd like another look at that Treadwell." Owen said. He'd noticed the multi-armed household help droid while Beru bargained for the scrap metal. It was in prime condition, unlike most of the Jawas' stock. "Probably stolen." he muttered, but he bought it anyway.

They stowed carpets and droid in the cargo compartment of the skimmer then went back to shopping, strolling slowly down the street looking at the booths and sidewalk displays.

Padme bought herself a red stone pendant, polished and carved into convolutions by the sand filled desert winds, and strung on a rope of braided glass. And Anakin got them each a pallie from a fruit vendor.

Midway down the street they came upon a number of small, drum like, stone tables and stools scattered over the sidewalk under brightly colored awnings in front of Anchorhead's cantina.

"How about something cold to drink?" Owen suggested just as the comlink clipped to Anakin's belt sounded.

It was Shmi and she sounded slightly worried. "Ani, I think you'd better come home. Your R2 droid has a message from Master Jinn."

"Okay, we'll be right there." Anakin clicked off and smiled reassuringly at Padme's suddenly pale face. "Don't look like that, sweetheart. It could be good news."

But her feelings told her it wasn't, and for all Ani's Jedi control she could see he was worried too.


	11. Capture and Rescue

"- the transmission cut off suddenly and it seems likely Jacen is also now in enemy hands." said Qui-Gon. "A rescue mission is on its way from Coruscant, I will join them on Geonosis. Protect the Queen, Anakin, and tell her she'll be able to go home soon." the Master's holographic image vanished. Artoo, who'd generated it, gave an unhappy whistle.

"The Jedi will never get there in time," Padme cried, "they're half a galaxy away!"

"Master will, he's probably there already." Anakin replied with steely calm.

"What can Qui-Gon do alone?" she demanded.

He grinned. "What can't he do! You've seen Master in action Padme." he turned to Cleig and Owen. "Don't worry about Obi-Wan, there isn't anything in the universe he and Master can't handle together."

"They can't fight a war." Padme interrupted. "And that's just what we'll have if the Jedi go charging in sabres blazing!" She got up and headed for the stair leading to her room. "I'm going to Geonosis."

Anakin crossed the living room in three long strides and caught her by the arm. "Why? What do you think you can do?"

"Prevent a war." she answered fiercely. "Master Dooku was right, the Separatist leaders know I'm against military action, they'll listen to me."

"Padme they've been trying to kill you!"

"No they haven't, just Nute Gunray and probably behind the other's backs. I might be able to use that."

"You heard what Master said, it's not over yet. I have to protect you."

"Then you'd better come with me hadn't you." she replied, pulled free and headed up the stairs.

Anakin turned to the others in desperation. "Mom -"

"Perhaps Padme is right, son." Shmi said gently.

"Queen Amidala's word carries a lot of weight in the Galaxy, Anakin." said Cleig. "Maybe she can talk the Geonosians into letting my son and this Master Dooku go."

Anakin looked skeptical.

"I don't see how you can stop her from trying - unless your Jedi rules let you tie up heads of state." Owen put in.

Cleig grinned a little wryly. "I'm afraid Owen's right. When a woman gets that look in her eye all a man can do is get out of the way."

Anakin glanced at Shmi and Beru, both looked demurely smug. Obviously they agreed with their men. He threw up his hands. "I guess I'll just have to hope I'm Jedi enough to get her out of whatever she gets us into."

Padme hugged Shmi, and turned to Cleig. "Thank you for everything and don't worry about Obi-Wan, we'll get him back safe I promise."

He cleared his throat. "When you do, tell him if he's interested he's got a family that would like to meet him."

"I will." she hugged Cleig too, then Beru and finally Owen then ran for her ship, Anakin following like a dark shadow.

They settled themselves in the pilot chairs. Behind them Artoo whistled and bleeped, telling Threepio in how to strap in.

"My this is exciting." the protocol droid was saying happily. "I've never flown in a spaceship before."

"This is not a good idea." Anakin said quietly.

She refused to look at him. "I have to try." then it burst out of her in spite of herself: "I'm sick and tired of my friends taking my risks for me!"

Anakin didn't answer but she could feel him watching her all the way to Geonosis.

The stillness of the imprisoned Jedi's Force rapport rippled under the impact of a powerful presence very familiar to them both. Obi-Wan's blue eyes popped open to stare incredulously into Dooku's dark ones.

"Qui-Gon!"

The old Master nodded. "Surely you're not surprised?"

"I guess I shouldn't be." Obi-Wan said grimly. "I wonder what he's done with Ani and the Queen?"

"You'll be able to ask him soon."

Jacen was dozing, hidden in a rocky cleft above the remains of his ship, when a familiar presence jerked him fully awake. "Master Qui-Gon!" scrambling over Arfour he looked down at the ledge and saw the tall brown robed figure standing beside the burnt out fighter. The Master looked around, then up. Their eyes met and Jacen felt the tension wash out of him. Qui-Gon would know what to do.

"The worst of it is I was cut off before I got to the most important part," Jacen explained, after he had climbed down to join the Master. "Madam Moore is a Sith, and she's not only behind the Separatists but she's the one who ordered the Clone army on Kamino in the Council's name."

"I see." Qui-Gon said thoughtfully. "So that's their plan."

"Master?"

"The Sith have engineered a war, Jacen, and I fear it's far too late to stop it." he shrugged the problem away. "Do you have any idea where Obi-Wan and Master Dooku are being kept?"

The Queen of Naboo's bright silver ship approached the stalagmite city, flying low over the dusty red plains weaving between rock outcroppings.

"I don't think it'll be a good idea to put down on the field, not with all those Federation ships." Anakin told Padme. "Look for someplace hidden, where we won't be spotted."

She scanned the rugged landscape ahead, then pointed: "What about there? looks like exhaust ports of some kind."

"That'll do." he agreed and aimed for one of the columns of steam. The ship arrowed down the huge vent to settle gently on its the rocky floor.

Padme unbuckled her harness and got up, settling her white cloak around her. "Whatever happens out there follow my lead. Remember we're here to find a diplomatic solution to this mess."

Anakin half grimaced, half grinned. "Don't worry. I've given up trying to argue with you."

There was a hatch, and behind the hatch a tunnel with rough, unfinished walls. Padme's white suit and cloak seemed to glow in the dimness as she walked determinedly ahead of him. Anakin found himself falling farther and farther behind, as he kept looking over his shoulder. He had a very bad feeling about this; he knew they were being watched. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw a bit of wall move. "Wait."

Padme stopped, looking at him uncertainly. Then her eyes moved past him to the passage behind them and she screamed.

Anakin didn't blame her a bit, he'd have screamed too if he'd had the time or the breath for it. Suddenly the walls and ceiling of the tunnel had come alive with vicious winged aliens. He managed to cut down their first rush, but not even a Jedi could stand forever against numbers like this. "Run!" he yelled. And Padme proved she could obey orders when it mattered, sprinting for the light at the end of the long tunnel. He backed after her as fast as he could, fending off the creatures as he went.

He backed right into Padme, almost sending her over the edge of a tiny ledge. As he clutched at her, to keep her from falling, he had a brief, crazy, out-of-time flash of another fair haired young man and pretty dark haired girl teetering on the edge of another ledge.

"Back!" Padme ordered, just as the door behind them slammed shut. Which was probably as well considering what was in the passage. Then, just to make it perfect, the walkway stub beneath them started to retract into the wall. No question but the Geonosians knew they were there - and weren't at all happy about it.

Padme, smart girl that she was, jumped onto a conveyor belt not far below, a fast moving belt that carried her almost out of sight in the few seconds it took Anakin to follow. Then a swarm of winged Geonosians descended on him and he had all he could do to defend himself, hoping desperately that they would concentrate on him and leave Padme alone. But his feelings told him that wasn't at all likely.

Suddenly the mirror-like dome that sealed their cell winked out. Obi-Wan started to his feet - just in time to catch a slight, white clad figure as it tumbled down the steps into the pit. It took him a second to recognize her, and another to find his voice.

"Your Majesty!"

Anakin was right behind her and Obi-Wan exploded: "Have you lost your mind? What were you thinking bringing her Highness here?"

The exclusion field reappeared overhead as Amidala pulled free. "Don't blame, Ani, Obi-Wan. It's all my own fault. I insisted on coming. I thought I could help."

She sat down on the stone ledge running around the pit and put her head in her hands.

"Padme thought she could talk the Separatists into releasing you and Master Dooku." Anakin explained quietly. "Jacen was cut off before he could warn the Council about the Sith."

"I see." Obi-Wan said heavily. He looked at the Queen. She wasn't crying - quite - but she was awfully close. "I'm certainly in no position to criticize you, Padme," he told her gently, "not after walking right into a trap myself." then his tone turned crisp. "Make yourself useful, Anakin, Master Dooku's been hurt."

The burns were much better than they had been, thanks to Obi-Wan's efforts, but still very ugly. Anakin's face darkened at the sight of them. "Who did this too you?" he demanded.

"I did it to myself, in a way." the Master answered calmly. "It was necessary to inflict some damage on Nute Gunray's viceregal palace, naturally his battle droids tried to stop me."

Anakin settled himself cross legged at the Master's feet and grinned up at him. "What kind of damage?"

"Extensive I fear." Dooku said with an unmistakable undertone of satisfaction.

"Way to go, Master!" Anakin crowed.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Two of a kind. No wonder poor Master Yoda hasn't got any hair left."

"He used to be taller too." Dooku said, straight faced.

Obi-Wan snorted with unwilling laughter.

Anakin took the old Master's wounded hands between his. "They won't get Qui-Gon, Padme, he'll save us."

"But what can he do?" Amidala asked forlornly.

"Something unlikely and reckless to the point of insanity no doubt." Obi-Wan said dryly.

"And extremely effective." Dooku finished mildly.

Anakin and the old Jedi Master seemed to slip into some kind of trance. Amidala could feel the power of the Force radiating from them - what was Ani doing?

"Healing Master Dooku's hands." Obi-Wan told her quietly. "Anakin's unusual strength in the Force allows him to do things the rest of us can't."

"You brought Master Qui-Gon back to life." she reminded him.

He winced a little. "That was - a unique event. I couldn't do it again." he smiled wryly in a way that reminded her suddenly and shockingly of his father. "Hopefully I won't have to."

"I met your family on Tatooine." she blurted. Maybe this wasn't the best time - but then what did they have to do but talk? And maybe she wouldn't get another chance. "Your father is married to Ani's mother. You have a brother named Owen, they live on a moisture farm near a little town called Anchorhead.

Obi-Wan seemed more bewildered than anything. "I don't think that's possible, your Highness, I was born on Ator. It's one of the Core Worlds."

"Right." Anakin opened his eyes, loosed the Master's now healed hands, and turned to look at them. "I wondered about that too. And why they call themselves Lars instead of Kenobi. According to Cleig - that's your father Obi-Wan - he was an indentured worker on Ator when you were born. That's why he and your mother gave you up, they figured you'd have a better life as a Jedi than they could give you. But a few years later they managed to get off Ator. Your mother wasn't indentured so they used her name to buy passage and to register the homestead on Tatooine.

"Your mother's name was Akia Lars, and you had a sister Orual. But they both died of the Red Fever twelve years ago. Cleig bought Mom to look after the house and vegetable garden for him and Owen. Then he fell in love with her and married her."

Obi-Wan still seemed bewildered, and maybe a touch irritated. "That's all very interesting, Anakin, your Highness, but why bring it up now?"

"Because your father and brother would like to see you." Amidala answered. "If you're willing."

He looked at her steadily for a moment, then spread his hands apologetically. "I'm sorry to sound so cold, your Highness, but the Jedi have been my only family for as long as I can remember. The idea of having another one takes a little getting used to." he smiled faintly. "No doubt I'll feel much more enthusiastic about a visit once we're out of our present predicament."

She managed to smile back. "I'll feel a lot better after that too."

After a while Amidala lay down and pretended to sleep. Ani and Obi-Wan, freed from the necessity of keeping up her spirits up, fell silent joining that intimidating old Jedi Master in meditation. Though they didn't seem to find Dooku intimidating at all, judging by the easy way they joked with him, like family just as Obi-Wan had said. He already had a father in Qui-Gon, and a brother in Anakin, so naturally Cleig and Owen seemed somewhat - extraneous. Maybe Beru was right, maybe it was too late to mend that broken bond. Poor Cleig...poor Obi-Wan.

'It's wrong, the Jedi are wrong to take babies away from their families, to seclude themselves in their Temple remote, unknowable and untouchable. It's wrong, all wrong.'

'You're just saying that because you can't have Anakin.' Queen Amidala said.

She felt herself saying the words, and yet at the same time she was watching herself, in her royal paint and robes, say them.

'No' she answered. And now she was Padme in the colorful tunic Beru had picked out for her with her hair loose on her shoulders, looking at Queen Amidala, and being looked at by her. 'No, that's not it. I can't have Anakin because of you too, but I don't feel our way is wrong. Hard, yes, but not wrong. If it's too hard we can quit.'

'So can the Jedi.' said the Queen.

'No they can't,' Padme argued, 'not really. We can go home, but where is a Jedi to go? To strangers? To a world they know nothing about?'

"Padme."

"Yes, Amidala?" she said sleepily, and opened her eyes to find Anakin staring at her. "Ani? I was talking to the Queen."

"You are the Queen, Padme." he said, looking a little alarmed.

"Yes of course, I was talking to Padme too." then she woke up all the way. "I'm sorry, Ani, I was dreaming -" she sat up and looked around the cell. Obi-Wan and Dooku were both on their feet, staring expectantly up at the field sealing them in. "What is it? Is something happening?"

Anakin nodded. "Yes, we all feel it. We've got to be ready."

"Ready for what Amidala asked, gathering her cloak around her.

"Anything - everything!" Anakin grinned, obviously he couldn't wait.

It was almost an anti-climax when the field vanished, revealing Master Qui-Gon standing above them, lightsabre in hand. His eyes went first too Dooku. "I'm glad to see you safe, Master." then moved to his apprentice. "I did not expect to see you here, Anakin."

"It's my fault." Amidala said quickly. "I insisted on coming - I thought I could help. I'm sorry."

The Master's blue eyes, softer than Obi-Wan's and clearer than Anakin's bored into her for a moment then he smiled. "No harm done, your Majesty, shall we go?"

"Where's Jacen?" Obi-Wan demanded the moment he emerged from the pit.

"Right here, Master," the young Jedi answered from the doorway he was guarding. "I went back to the ship as ordered, contacted Coruscant and Master Qui-Gon and waited for help - uh, they blasted the fighter I'm afraid, but Arfour's all right."

"Well done, Jacen." Obi-Wan clapped his Padawan's shoulder. "I'm glad to see you're turning into a more prudent man than your Master."

"With all due respect, Master, that wouldn't be hard." Jacen grinned

"Recklessness runs in our line I fear." said Master Dooku gliding to look out of the open doorway. "You seem to be the exception, young Jacen."

"Or maybe a throwback to your Master Yoda." said Anakin, joining them.

"Mace is on his way with, I would guess, every able bodied Jedi in the Temple behind him." Qui-Gon told Dooku and Obi-Wan. "All we have to do is stay alive and free until they arrive."

A look of alarm flashed over Anakin's face "That might take some doing, Master." he and Jacen hastily slammed the door shut and bolted it - just in time

It vibrated under the angry blows of many fists. Amidala looked around nervously. They were standing in a cavernous chamber with rough stone walls soaring to a sky light high overhead. the uneven stone floor was dotted with pits like the one that had been their prison and piles of loose stone. There seemed to be no way out.

Master Qui-Gon gazed calmly up at the distant skylight. "Have you ever done any rock climbing your Highness?"


	12. On the Run

"Have you ever done any rock climbing your Highness?"

"No." Amidala answered grimly. "But I'm a quick learner." the door gave an enormous shudder - as if it had been struck by something heavy, like a battering ram - and she flinched. "If I get the chance that is."

Master Dooku raised his hand and a nearby heap of boulders came apart, rolled to the door and piled themselves up against it. Amidala felt her jaw drop - this was in an entirely different class from floating fruit! - but the other Jedi didn't so much as blink.

"That should hold them for a while." the old Master said calmly.

The climb up the walls was easy, the rough stone provided plenty of hand and footholds. The underside of the dome to the skylight was trickier; the Jedi clung like so many flies but when Amidala tried it she lost her footing at once and almost fell - would have fallen if Ani hadn't caught her with the Force and pushed her back against the wall. She grabbed gratefully at it and hung there panting.

"Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, climbing upside down takes some practice." Anakin answered her, then called up to Qui-Gon, near the skylight: "Master, I think it would be better if we lifted the Queen out by rope."

"I agree!" Amidala said fervently into the wall.

"Very well." the Master answered. There was a sharp crack and the pieces of the shattered skylight rained past them in a glittering shower. "Catch, Anakin."

"Okay, Padme," he said soothingly, putting an arm around her, "you can let go now, I've got you. Put your feet on mine, and hold on to me."

She did so willingly, ashamed of herself for losing her nerve like this but the near fall had shaken her badly. Slowly they were lifted upward.

"Nearly there....okay, Padme, let go of me and grab onto the edge. Don't worry I've still got you."

She unwound her arms from around Anakin's neck and reached for the edge of the sky-light. He gave her a little boost and she was lying on the outside of the dome, trying not to shake. Obi-Wan offered her a hand and she got to her feet.

They were standing on a slight hill in an open space between three stalagmite towers.

There was an explosion below. Jacen glanced over the edge. "Nearly through, and it won't take them long to figure out where we've gone."

"I would prefer to be indoors," Dooku observed mildly, "as our opponents are winged."

"Narrow tunnels would help minimize their advantage in numbers too." Obi-Wan agreed.

Qui-Gon pointed at a dark gap in the red stone walls surrounding them. "In there."

The gap led to yet another rough walled tunnel, but this one was blessedly uninhabited. Once they were safe under cover Master Qui-Gon took two lightsabres from his belt and handed the first, which seemed to be slightly curved, to Dooku and the second to Obi-Wan. Then he turned to his Padawan.

"I didn't find your lightsabre with the others, Anakin."

Ani winced slightly, seemed to brace himself. "It got chomped."

Qui-Gon's heavy eyebrows lifted questioningly, "Chomped?"

"Pa - Queen Amidala and I were chased into one of the droid factories. I was riding a conveyor belt, trying to catch up with her Highness, and these machines kept stomping and cutting at me. One of them sliced my sabre in half." Qui-Gon seemed to be fighting back a smile, Obi-Wan covered his eyes. "It could've happened to anyone."

"Not anyone." Obi-Wan, Jacen and Master Dooku said almost together.

Calmly Qui-Gon took out another lightsabre and handed it to his apprentice.

Anakin's ears were dull red with embarrassment. "Thank you, Master."

"It wasn't Ani's fault." Amidala said defensively.

"It never is." Obi-Wan sighed.

They started down the dark passage, the five men forming a square around Amidala weapons in hand but not activated.

"It's not like nobody else has ever lost a lightsabre." Anakin muttered. "It happens to the best of us: Adi Gallia, Mace Windu, even you Obi-Wan."

"But not six times!" the other Jedi answered.

Amidala blinked. "Six?" that did sound a little excessive.

"Only five." Anakin said, stung. "You can't count that time on Ord Mandell."

"No I don't suppose I can." Obi-Wan conceded. "But even five -"

"I believe I must have lost at least five lightsabres in my time." Dooku' s dark velvet voice put in from behind.

"I don't doubt it, Master," Obi-Wan answered, over his shoulder, "but you've been a Jedi a lot longer than Anakin."

"Enough." said Master Qui-Gon and his two Apprentices fell obediently silent.

The tunnel was unpleasant, dark, slightly damp and smelling of decay and animal wastes. "Where are we?" Amidala whispered.

"The complex adjoining the arena," Qui-Gon answered as quietly, "the Geonosians favor beast fights and gladiatorial combats as entertainment. Your cell was in one of their holding pens."

"Which means this will be the first place they look." Obi-Wan said pessimistically.

A thunder of metal feet, froze them in their tracks, the passage was like an echo chamber it was impossible for Amidala - and apparently the Jedi too - to tell which direction they were coming from. It turned out to be both; suddenly battle droids were charging at them front and back. The five lightsabres ignited in a blinding flash deflecting the droids' fire back in their non-existent teeth, mowing them down. In seconds they were surrounded by smoking droid wreckage but the sound of tramping droid feet still echoed down the passage.

Another troop appeared behind them, only to vanish under tons of rock as the roof collapsed above them - with a little help from Master Dooku.

Anakin's lightsabre flashed emerald fire as he sliced through the lock of a big metal door and pushed it open. "In here!"

Amidala managed to grab one of the battle droids' blasters before the Jedi hustled her through the door into a large, dark, evil smelling cave. Then a massive humped shaped lurched to its feet and a great red head with three horns and bleary little eyes swung around to look at them.

"Oops." said Anakin. Then he took a step towards the creature, one hand raised commandingly. Amidala successfully fought down an urge to pull him back. The animal's head lowered, it seemed to be peering at Anakin uncertainly. "All right," he said evenly but with a trace of strain in his voice, "move slowly towards the other door."

Master Qui-Gon had to tug at her arm to get her moving, slowly they drifted towards a much smaller metal door set in the far wall of the holding pen. The beast's eyes remained fixed on Ani - but how was he going to get away?

Jacen opened the door and the Master steered her through it, Dooku followed but Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon both remained just inside the cave, ready to help Anakin if necessary.

Instead of moving towards the door he moved toward the beast, hand extended as if to pet it. Amidala made a little choked sound and started forward only to be stopped by two heavy hands on her shoulders. "Stay where you are, your Highness," Dooku said softly, "Anakin knows what he's doing."

He continued to move forward until his hand was resting right on the creature's snout, just beneath the upper horn. Then suddenly his lightsabre flashed and the beast collapsed in a heap. There were tears in Anakin's eyes when he joined them at the door. "I had to do it, Master, I couldn't leave it here to suffer."

Qui-Gon nodded and put a comforting hand on his Padawan's shoulder.

This passage was slightly wider and somewhat better lighted which was good, but that meant it was also often used which was bad. Sure enough it didn't take them long to come face to face with a group of winged Geonosian soldiers who promptly opened fire with their sonic blasters.

Amidala returned fire with a will and the Jedi's lightsabres proved as effective at deflecting sonic /plasma spheres as ordinary blaster bolts. The ricochets went every which way, flattening Geonosians and blasting holes in the stone walls. One wild shot struck a metal door warping it. An instant later it was torn from its hinges by a pair of massive claws and a monstrous cross between a lizard and a crab forced its way out, striking out in all directions with its six huge claws.

Geonosians and Humans alike scattered, Obi-Wan and Anakin dodging one way, shielding Amidala behind them, while the two Masters and Jacen were forced in the opposite direction.

Obi-Wan cut through another door and they ducked inside, losing the crab-lizard but also their companions. This room was large and furnished with benches and tables. It was also full of wingless Geonosian drones some armed with long, static pikes. The Jedi quickly lopped off the charged tips. Amidala shot down several of the drones and remainder fled, but as they did so one, quicker thinking than the others, opened a barred gate set into the wall.

A four eyed cat-like creature with a huge, toothy mouth sprang into the room. It focused on Anakin. He raised his hand trying to influence it as he had the horned beast and the cat-thing leaped at him. He somersaulted out of range just in time but his lightsabre was knocked from his hand.

"Forget it, Ani." Obi-Wan shouted. "Look at that braincase. It hasn't enough intelligence to be influenced!"

Anakin rolled to his feet, eyes on the beast. It slashed at him, pulling the Jedi robe from his back. Amidala screamed.

"Get her out of here!" Anakin shouted, dodging another grab.

"I'm trying!" Obi-Wan snapped back, harried. Amidala pulled free of his hold, ducked under his arm and ran for the beast.

"Padme, no!"

She pulled the cloak from her shoulders and flung it over the cat-beast's head. In the split second before the thing could shake it off Anakin called his sabre to his hand, ignited it and split the animal's skull.

Amidala flung herself into his arms. "Oh Ani, don't scare me like that!"

"It's okay," he soothed, "I'm fine, no harm done." but she could feel him shaking. He kissed her, and she clung to him for a long moment before forcing herself to let go. Then she turned and saw Obi-Wan, staring at them with something like horror on his face.

"It's not what you think." she stammered.

"Oh yes it is." said Anakin.

"We can't help how we feel," Amidala conceded, "but we know it's impossible, Obi-Wan."

"No it isn't."

She turned on Anakin almost angrily. "We agreed -"

He put two fingers over her lips, silencing her. "It's not impossible, Padme. Not if we're willing to wait."

"Wait." she echoed blankly.

He grinned. "I know, it took my mom to think of it. You're not always going to be a queen, Padme. By the time you're ready to abdicate I'll have passed my trials and we can be together."

"But...but you'll still have to leave the Jedi. You can't, your destiny -"

He silenced her again. "You are part of my destiny, Padme. Search your feelings, you know this to be true." then he looked over her head at his friend. "Once I've passed the trials I can leave the Order without it reflecting on our Master, but I am going out. I'm sorry, Obi-Wan."

The other knight shook his head. "Nothing to be sorry about." he said quietly. "You've been well taught, Anakin. If your feelings tell you must leave the Jedi then I trust your judgment."

Amidala, leaning against his chest, felt Anakin's sigh of relief. "I hoped you'd understand."

Obi-Wan smiled crookedly. "Now that that's settled I suggest we concentrate on the moment, as Master would say, and find a way out of here!"

"Right." Anakin agreed. "This way."

"No." Obi-Wan said firmly. "This way! I trust your judgment Anakin, but not your sense of direction."

Anakin huffed a sigh to Obi-Wan's face but behind his friend's back he gave Amidala a grin and a wink.

Feeling a little shaky she returned them. It was all settled; she'd finish her term as queen and Anakin would be waiting for her. If they managed to get out of this mess that is!


	13. Separate Misadventures

It took a long time to lose the Acklay, and even longer to elude the Geonosian guards that seemed to come at them from all directions, but at last Jacen and the two Masters found themselves in a place of temporary safety, an alcove at the junction of two passages, with time to catch their breath and consider their options.

"We've lost Master, and Anakin and the Queen." Jacen said worriedly. Dooku looked expectantly at Qui-Gon, so he did too.

The younger Master stared into the distance, face remote but intent, focused on the Force. "This way." he said and headed purposefully up the passage immediately opposite their hiding place.

The Jedi heard or sensed something coming and hustled Amidala into a convenient recess. They huddled there, trying not to breath too loudly - and a stubby blue R2 unit rolled around the bend of the passage ahead to bleep inquiringly.

"Artoo Detoo!" Anakin practically squeaked, then stepped out of hiding to confront his droid. "What are you doing here?" he was answered by a spate of bleeps and whistles which he interrupted impatiently. "Where's Threepio?" a rather discouraged sounding bleep from Artoo. "Well find him and get back to the ship!" the little droid emitted an angry squealing buzz that needed no translation. "Listen, Artoo, we're going to have to get out of here in a hurry. I want the ship warmed up and ready to go the minute we're aboard, you got that?" a chastened bleep showed that he did.

The R2 unit seemed to droop a moment, then turned and started back up the corridor. "And find Threepio!" Anakin called after him. A long whistle of acknowledgement floated back as the droid disappeared around the bend.

Anakin turned and gave his companions an apologetic shrug. "He just wanted to help. Artoo's got a lot of initiative."

"There's an understatement for you." Obi-Wan said dryly.

Qui-Gon's long stride faltered and a frown of concentration wrinkled his brow.

A look of concern flickered over Dooku's face and they exchanged glances. Jacen, who wasn't sensing anything out of the ordinary, looked at them both anxiously.

Moving slowly and cautiously they continued down the passage and around a sharp corner. A tall, thin, black cowled figure stood there, waiting for them, with Jango Fett's armored form at her shoulder and a row of super battle droids behind them.

"Madam Moore." Dooku's expressive voice held a silken mockery. "You rate yourself lightly, Lady Sith. Is all this really necessary for two old men and a boy?"

"Unlike my predecessor I do not allow overconfidence to lead me into folly." she replied as a second file of four giant battle droids marched into position behind the three Jedi.

Jacen pivoted to face them. 'Oh help.' he thought, and glanced quickly over his shoulder at the two Masters, neither of whom had turned a hair. He just hoped that meant they had a plan. The battle droids leveled their weapons, Jacen gulped and had just a second to think 'Looks like we don't have time for a plan.' before the droids opened fire.

Blaster-bolts crossed and re-crossed, sizzling through the air as they ricocheted off three flashing lightsabres exploding against rock walls and the plating of the massive droids. When the stone dust cleared all eight droids were down and Lady Sinistra and her metal cased flunky had vanished.

"We should go after them." said Dooku.

Qui-Gon shook his head. "No. first we must find Anakin and the Queen."

"And Master Obi-Wan." said Jacen.

Qui-Gon smiled at him. "I trust Obi-Wan to take care of himself, but looking after Anakin and Queen Amidala as well is too much to ask - even of him!"

Jacen grinned and Dooku's lips twitched in what might have been a smile. "An excellent point my former Padawan. Very well, we will track down our strayed companions and then go after the Sith together."

Obi-Wan stopped so suddenly Amidala ran into him, and Anakin into her. "What is it?" she whispered, peering over the young Master's out-flung arm.

"Listen."

She did and heard, faintly, the sound of cries and an angry animal roaring echoing down the narrow passage.

"I don't think we want to go that way." Anakin said from behind her.

Obi-Wan nodded grim agreement. "Look for a side passage, maybe we can get around it."

But there were no side passages. The winding corridor let them inexorably closer to the sounds. Peeking cautiously out of the narrow archway they found themselves looking into a large open space at the intersection of several tunnels. The Acklay was there, roaring and striking out with its huge pinchers at the darting forms of Geonosian picadors trying to herd it with their static pikes.

"Didn't we just leave this party?" Anakin asked in a whisper.

Obi-Wan ignored the comment. "This way." he said and led them out into the space. Fortunately both monster and picadors were far too busy to notice the three forms flitting quickly around a rock buttress and into a narrow crevice on its far side.

It seemed to be a natural fissure, irregularly shaped and winding upward. It was very narrow, tight enough in spots to give even Amidala trouble. How the men were managing she couldn't think but nobody got stuck. Eventually it ended on a narrow gallery overlooking a semi-circular chamber with a number of tunnels leading into it, their archways ranged along the curved wall. They barely had time to see all this before three brown robed forms emerged from one of the openings.

"Jacen!" Obi-Wan's voice was barely more than a whisper but all three Jedi looked up as if they'd heard the call. Jacen's face lit with relief and Amidala thought she saw a slight relaxation in Qui-Gon as well. He signaled for them to come down.

Obi-Wan, unhesitatingly climbed over the railing and held out a hand to her. She drew back - colliding with Anakin at her back - it was at least thirty feet to the floor below.

"Uh, couldn't we look for a stair or a ladder or something?" she suggested nervously.

"No time." Ani said into her ear. "Don't worry, Padme, we know what we're doing." and then he took her by the waist and lifted her over the railing setting her down next to Obi-Wan. She held tightly to the outside of the rail as Anakin climbed over it to join them. "Remember how I caught you when you nearly fell in the holding pen?"

Oh. Well if Ani could do that presumably he and Obi-Wan could keep them from killing themselves jumping from this height. She still wasn't happy but she trusted them.

Below the two Masters and Jacen had skirted the cavern, keeping close to the walls, and now stood waiting expectantly almost directly beneath them. "Now!" Obi-Wan ordered and Amidala took a deep breath and jumped.

They fell, far more slowly than gravity decreed, and landed lightly on the floor below. Amidala got her breath back and wiped sweaty palms against her thighs. 'You know that might almost be fun - with a little practice!'

"I am glad to see your Highness safe," Qui-Gon said formally but with a glint of humor in his eye. "I trust my Padawans have looked after you to your satisfaction."

"Oh yeah, it's been a million laughs." she answered wryly, then felt a sudden surge of guilt. She remembered only too well what Qui-Gon had gone through to get Anakin into the Jedi, how was he going to feel when he learned his Padawan meant to leave the Order? She knew he would never say a word of reproach to either of them - but how could he help but feel rejected, even betrayed? She owed him so much, he deserved better of her than that.

Qui-Gon frowned slightly, probably picking up her turmoil in that uncanny way of his, but only said. "This way."

One tunnel, larger than the others, opened off the chamber's flat wall with bright sunlight at the end of it. Qui-Gon walked briskly up the slightly sloping passage, forcing Amidala to trot to keep up. They emerged suddenly into the light and were greeted by a roar of voices.

Amidala blinked tears and dazzle out of her eyes and realized she was standing inside a circle of Jedi at the edge of a vast arena overlooked by soaring stands filled with innumerable cheering Geonosians.

"I think we took a wrong turn somewhere, Master." Anakin said tightly.

But Qui-Gon shook his head. "No. This is exactly where we want to be."

Amidala stared at him incredulously and was glad to see even the other Jedi were equally taken aback. "Why?"

Suddenly lightsabre blades flamed to life, blue and green, all over the arena; on the walkway below the seats, at the openings of the tunnels and in some of the boxes. The roar of the crowd cut off in shock.

"That's why." the Master said calmly, his voice strangely loud in the sudden silence.


	14. The Arena

For the space of a heartbeat nobody and nothing moved, then the stands exploded into motion; winged Geonosians took off in droves and those with just stubs on their shoulders pushed and shoved their way to the exit tunnels. Then files of battle droids and super battle droids flooded into the arena and the Jedi ran to meet them shattering the neat mechanical formation. The melee became general, Jedi cutting down droids all over the place - and a few of them falling as well.

A tall, dark Jedi, descended from the sky - or rather the stands above them - landing between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. "Glad you could join us, Mace." the older Master said, eyes twinkling.

The Jedi, who Amidala recognized as one of the councilors from the Chancellor's office, glared at Qui-Gon. "What are you doing here? I ordered you to stay with the Queen."

"I am with the Queen." the Master replied and nodded towards her.

Mace Windu looked, and stared at Amidala in horrified disbelief. "Your Majesty! Qui-Gon have you gone mad?"

"It's not Master's fault, it's mine." Anakin put in quickly.

"No it's mine." Amidala said firmly. "I insisted Jedi Skywalker bring me here to negotiate for Master Dooku and Master Kenobi's release.

As they talked the Jedi were, almost absent mindedly, batting away intermittent blaster fire from standard battle droids, Luckily they hadn't attracted the attention of any of the super battle droids or destroyers - yet..

"This perhaps is not the best time to discuss the matter." Dooku suggested mildly.

Windu grimaced. "As ever the master of understatement, Yan." then he grinned. "Good to see you safe, old friend."

A hint of concern clouded the old Master's face. "I hope you know what you're doing, Mace, our comrades are badly outnumbered."

"Don't worry, help is on the way." Windu looked around. "Let's see if we can get Queen Amidala to some decent cover." but as they were in a gladiatorial arena there was little cover to be had other than the tunnel openings - and there was no knowing what might come out of them at any minute. And of course a wedge of Jedi holding together was bound to attract enemy attention.

Suddenly Anakin grabbed her and jumped, one of those breathtaking Force assisted leaps, they landed flat on the sandy ground some distance from where' they'd started, with him shielding her. Amidala felt rather than saw the sonic/plasma sphere many times the size of those fired by the Geonosian blasters, bounce over and past them to impact harmlessly against a trio of stubby pillars.

"You all right?" Ani asked.

She nodded, getting her breath back. "What about the others?"

Anakin looked around helplessly; between the blaster fire, dust and surging combatants it was impossible to see where their companions' own evasive maneuvers had taken them. "Looks like we're on our own."

"I hope they're all right." Amidala said worriedly.

"Incoming!" Anakin pulled her flat again as another huge sonic/plasma sphere passed just over them. This time the detonation felled some Jedi as well as a drove of droids.

"We better do something about that gun." Anakin said. "Follow me."

She did, firing her blaster as she ran. The big gun managed to get off one more shot, forcing them to drop again, before they reached it. It was manned by Geonosian warriors rather than droids and they didn't last long against Ani's lightsabre and Amidala's shooting.

Anakin pushed the gunner's body out of the seat and took its place. "Seems a shame not to get some use out of this thing."

Amidala looked around. The trouble was the Jedi, though fewer now, were so mixed in with the droids as to make a clean shot all but impossible - then she saw it. "Ani, over there!" she pointed to a file of destroyers advancing steadily as they shot down droids and Jedi with mechanical impartiality.

"Hang on." the whole top part of the gun slewed around as the muzzle lined up on its target, then shook underfoot as it fired. The line of destroyers disintegrated in flames.

"See anything else we can shoot?" Ani asked.

Amidala pointed towards a tunnel mouth with battle droids flowing out of it. "How about there?"

He grinned. "Good choice." Three shots not only closed the tunnel but eliminated most of the reinforcements.

But by then the droids had realized the gun was in enemy hands. Amidala saw a trio of super battle droids converging on them from behind, weapon arms rising to fire, and screamed, "Ani, look out!"

Anakin realized he could never get the gun around in time and jumped down, pulling her with him to take cover behind the base just as the upper part of the gun exploded above them. ordinary battle droids converged on their position. Anakin fended off the incoming fire and Amidala returned it with vigor.

"You call this a diplomatic solution?" he demanded during a lull.

She looked up at him in surprise, saw his grin and returned it. "No. I call it aggressive negotiations!" then she looked back at the battle and her grin slid off, so many Jedi were down! "We're not doing very well are we, Ani?"

"No." he agreed grimly. "I hope this help Master Windu's expecting gets here before it's too late."

Jacen spat out a mouthful of arena sand and raised his head to look around. He saw Obi-Wan picking himself up nearby but there was no sign of the others. A second giant sonic/plasma sphere detonated a short distance away felling some of their fellow Jedi. Jacen and Obi-Wan ran towards them. One, a non-Human Jacen didn't know, was dead and one, their old friend Luminara Unduli, was completely unharmed, but her Apprentice, hadn't been so fortunate.

Jacen threw himself on his knees beside her. "Barriss! are you all right?"

"Sure I am," she snapped, "I'm just lying here because I'm tired!"

Jacen grinned, she couldn't be too bad if she could still snap at him. Luminara, bending over them, seemed to feel the same. "Hush, my Padawan, remember your manners." her blue eyes unfocused as she used the Force to look inside her Apprentice's body. "A simple concussion wound," she said after a moment, with visible relief, "the nerves have been shocked into paralysis but that will pass. In the meantime...." she looked around for some kind of cover.

"There." said Obi-Wan, pointing to some flattened pillars.

Luminara laid Barriss gently inside the rough triangle formed by the fallen stone posts. Jacen retrieved a droid blaster nearby and offered it to her. Bariss grimaced but took it, she couldn't use her lightsabre if she couldn't stand.

"Stay here, and stay down!" Luminara ordered. "I will come back for you when I may."

Barriss nodded. "Be careful, Luminara!"

"I am not the reckless Padawan here." her Teacher reminded her dryly.

Barriss would be fine, Jacen told himself firmly. The battle droids would pay no attention to a prostrate enemy who wasn't firing at them. But if Luminara, or Jacen himself, stayed with her the droids would attack, she was safer alone. Still it was very hard to walk away from her.

"Let's try to find the Queen." said Obi-Wan.

"Queen? what Queen?" Luminara wanted to know.

"Amidala of the Naboo." he answered grimly.

"Force preserve us!" Luminara looked at the battle around them with dismay. "What is she doing here?"

"Long story." Obi-Wan answered. "I'll explain later," he fended off a series of blaster bolts from a super battle droid and felled it, "if we have a later that is."

The three of them stuck together, guarding each other's backs. Suddenly Jacen heard an all too familiar animal roar. Somehow the Acklay had found its way out of the tunnels and into the battle. It loomed over them, rearing up and preparing to strike.

"I've had about enough of this creature!" Obi-Wan said and sliced away the claw descending on him, then cut off the other foreleg with a backhand strike and stabbed the monster right through the braincase as it collapsed at his feet. Breathless he looked at the others.

"If you've quite finished killing helpless animals -" Luminara began acidly.

"Helpless animal?" Obi-Wan sputtered. "You saw those claws! The blasted thing's been chasing us all over the complex -!"

"Uh, Masters." Jacen interrupted. A trio of destroyers advancing on them brought a quick end to the argument.

"We seem to have lost the young people." Dooku observed calmly, fending off blaster fire.

"Anakin will take care of the Queen." Qui-Gon replied from behind his right shoulder.

"But who is going to take care of Anakin?" Mace wondered from Dooku's left.

The old Master couldn't see his former Padawan's smile but he sensed it. "Queen Amidala. She is a most efficient young lady."

Dooku finished his survey of the battlefield and he didn't like what he'd seen. "Mace -"

"Yes I know," the Councilor said grimly, in answer to the unspoken thought, "but Yoda should be here soon with an army of reinforcements. We'll just have to hang on somehow..." Mace closed his eyes briefly and Dooku felt his call pulse through the Force; 'Rally to me, comrades, rally to me.' "At least we can guard each other's backs." he added aloud.

'Rally to me.' Anakin's head turned sharply at the silent call, then he reached down to pull Padme to her feet. "C'mon."

"Where?" she asked blankly. "Ani, we've got some cover here -"

"There," he said pointing to a cluster of brown and cream robed figures in the distance, "Master Windu is calling us together."

They started across the arena, Anakin trying to look everywhere at once and fending blaster fire away from Padme.

A prone super battle droid suddenly sat up, right in front of them. Anakin shoved Padme behind him and brought his sabre to guard - just as the droid's head was sliced neatly from its shoulders by a flash of blue light. The torso fell to one side revealing the slender, leather clad form of a blue skinned Twi-lek, a lightsabre burning in her hand.

"Aayla!" Anakin exclaimed.

"Anakin Skywalker what are you doing here?" she answered, just as surprised. "I heard you were on assignment."

"I was, she brought me here." he looked down at Padme, she seemed to be glaring at Aayla was she jealous? She had no need to be but Anakin couldn't help feeling a little flattered. "Your Higness this is Jedi Aayla Secura who I told you about. Aayla, this is my assignment; Queen Amidala of the Naboo."

The Twi-lek's blue eyes went wide. "And you brought her here? Oh, Ani you are going to be in so much trouble -"

He pushed Padme into Aayla's arms and whirled just in time to block a stream of destroyer fire. Then he felt the Force shift powerfully and one of the stubby observation towers fell on top of the droidekaa, demolishing it.

"Thanks, Aayla." he panted.

"You're welcome, let's get to the others."

Between forty and fifty Jedi had formed a defensive circle with maybe half as many wounded in the center. Anakin was relieved to see his Master, Dooku, Obi-Wan and Jacen among those still on their feet.

The Droids converged on them forming a second ring of steel enclosing the shrinking band of Jedi. The blaster fire was incredibly intense and hits were becoming uncomfortably common, even Jedi get tired. Anakin felt all right so far, but he couldn't keep this up forever - and what would happen to Padme then?

Suddenly the firing stopped.


	15. Attack of the Clones

"The Jedi have escaped from custody, my Master, forgive me I have failed you." Darth Sinistra bowed her bald head before the glimmering hologram of her cowled Master.

"It is of no importance," Darth Sidious replied, almost jovially, "all is going as I have foreseen. We shall have our war which is what matters, my young Apprentice. Jinn and Kenobi can be disposed of later, do not concern yourself."

"Thank you, my Master." she said, bowing deeply. "Still I regret not having avenged my predecessor."

"You must be patient, Sinistra, patient and mindful. I am glad you did not let your desire for revenge lead you into folly as it did Maul." said Sidious.

"If I have pleased you I am satisfied, my Master." she answered humbly. She hesitated a moment, then continued. "I would like to bring the bounty hunter Jango Fett to Coruscant with me, he has been useful to us."

"That is true." the Master agreed but he frowned. "You are not becoming ... attached to this Fett are you Sinistra?"

His Apprentice searched her feelings, then shook her head. "No, my Master, I value him as a useful tool no more."

Sidious nodded satisfied. "You are right. He has been useful and is likely to prove even more so in the future. You may bring him to Coruscant."

"Thank you, my Master."

"Continue as you have begun, Lady Sinistra, I am well pleased with you." he said and vanished.

Sinistra straightened from her bow. A throat cleared behind her and she turned; it was Fett. "A useful tool?" he asked.

"Of course." she replied, unperturbed. "Surely you know I am just using you, Jango."

"Naturally." he walked closer, very close indeed. "And I hope you realize I am using you too, my dear Sinistra." he purred.

Pale eyes widened as non-existent brows lifted. "But of course." then she smiled. She was the taller but their faces were still only inches apart. "Isn't it fortunate our purposes coincide so neatly?" she said in her whispery voice.

"Very fortunate." he agreed, huskily.

The door to the communications chamber opened and Boba dashed in, breathless. "Lady Sinistra! the Jedi are here."

"Excellent." she said. "How many?"

"Uh...all of them I think."

Jango and Sinistra exchanged a look; half indulgent, half amused. "All ten thousand of them, son?" the father asked mildly.

"Uh, no." Boba admitted. "But a couple of hundred at least."

"All those resident in the Temple." said Sinistra. "Excellent. Come, Jango." she started for the door.

Jango patted his son's shoulder as they met in the doorway. "Go back to the ship, Boba and wait for me."

"Aw, Dad, I want to see!"

"No, son." Jango said firmly. "Lady Sinistra and I have a few things to do yet, and I don't want to have to worry about you."

"But -"

"Boba." Sinistra joined the argument. "You will be a great warrior and a valuable servant of the New Order someday - but you must learn to obey orders. Your father and I will be leaving soon. Have Slave One ready for take off."

"Yes, m'Lady." the boy said resignedly and headed off down the passage in the opposite direction to the one taken by his father and the Sith Witch.

"You have spoiled that boy, Jango."

"I'm afraid I have." the bounty hunter agreed ruefully.

"Still, initiative and aggression are good traits." she continued. "It is a delicate matter to inculcate obedience without breaking the spirit."

Jango nodded. "I may have erred to much on the side of indulgence though. You've been good for him, Sinistra, he knows he can't wheedle his way around you."

"He's a fine boy." she almost smiled. "If he were just a little stronger in the Force I'd steal him from you to be my apprentice."

Fett grinned at the compliment to his son. "I'm afraid you'll have to settle for a loyal commander of Mandalore, Sinistra."

"That will be more than enough."

There was pandemonium in the arena and among the distinguished guests in the luxurious Archducal box. "She's getting away!" Nute Gunray whined the moment he caught sight of Sinistra. "Queen Amidala is getting away!"

"Nonsense, Viceroy." the Sith Witch said, walking to the railing to give the arena a casual glance. "Amidala is trapped, just like the Jedi." she fixed a cold, pallid eye on the wilting Nemoidian. "I promised you her life and you will have it. I always keep my word, Gunray, always. Remember that."

She looked back at the arena. There were no longer two hundred Jedi fighting. Barely a quarter of that number were still on their feet, retreating into a defensive ring, encircled by legions of battle droids. She watched the ring contract as more Jedi fell. Queen Amidala, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and young Skywalker had to die of course - but the others could be useful in many, many ways....she lifted her hand and instantly the firing stopped.

"Master Windu," she called, "your position is clearly hopeless. Surrender and your lives will be spared."

"We will not be hostages for you to bargain with, Sly Moore!" The Jedi Master shouted back.

Sinistra shrugged, neither surprised nor displeased. "As you wish." and lifted her hand to signal the Droids to resume fire.

Master Windu was absolutely right of course, but Anakin wished desperately there was some way to get Padme out of all this - then grinned ruefully at himself; like she'd go. Then, behind him, she shouted "Look!"

He looked at her, along with everybody else, then followed her pointing finger upward. Suddenly the sky was full of blocky gunships. They swirled down upon them landing in a rough circle around the embattled Jedi and white armored troopers poured out, firing savagely on the battle droids.

So this was the help Master Windu'd been expecting. Anakin grabbed Padme's arm and hustled her into the nearest gunship, quickly followed by Obi-Wan, Jacen, Qui-Gon and Dooku. A number of the mysterious troopers piled in after them and the ship took off.

"Master!" Jacen clutched at Obi-Wan's shoulder. "It's the clone army from Kamino, and they were ordered by the Sith!"

"What?"

"Remember Fett said he'd been recruited by a woman called Sinistra, and Darth Sinistra is Sly Moore's Sith name!" Jacen explained breathlessly.

Appalled Obi-Wan looked at Qui-Gon, so did Anakin and Padme.

"The Sith wanted a war." the Master said quietly to his former teacher.

"And we've played right into their hands." Dooku agreed grimly.

And they had no choice but to go on playing the Sith's game, Anakin realized sickly, the Separatists had to be stopped, no matter what. Anti-aircraft fire rocked the gunship and everybody grabbed for some kind of support.

"Hang on." Obi-Wan ordered rather unnecessarily.

Anakin pulled a hand loop down low enough for Padme to grab and kept a protective arm around her.

They were passing over part of the vast spacefield now. Some of the small, conical Techno-Union ships opened fire on them. The gunners' return fire was ineffective. Anakin quickly analyzed the ships' design and intuited their most vulnerable point. "Aim just above the fuel cells."

That worked, the ships toppled, scattering or crushing the droids and Geonosians around them.

"Good call, Anakin." Obi-Wan complimented.

He grinned and shrugged. "You know me and machines."

Their gunship swerved around a needle of reddish stone and then they saw it; Anakin felt rather than heard Padme's gasp. Thousands of white armored clonetroopers were pouring out of wedge shaped Republic battleships, forming themselves into units and advancing on the globular Federation starships and the droid army defending them led by sabre wielding Jedi knights. Gunships were landing and taking off everywhere and small carrier ships were putting down gigantic combat walkers that paced in massive majesty towards the enemy.

Padme was shivering, here was the war she'd fought so hard to stop happening right in front of her. Anakin hugged her close. "Nobody could have stopped this, Padme." he whispered into her hair, "not even you." and felt her nod acceptance.

"Where is Yoda?" Qui-Gon asked Dooku.

His face went distant for a moment, then he pointed at a metal tower in the distance. "There."

"That's the forward command post." the clonetrooper pilot offered.

"Take us there." Qui-Gon ordered.

"Yes sir."

The top of the tower was a small open deck ringed with consoles. Yoda stood brooding in the middle of it, leaning on his staff and watching the busy clonetrooper technicians. He greeted the news of the clone army's origin without surprise.

"Feared as much I did." he said heavily. "Ours now they are and need them we do." then he squared his small shoulders and started snapping out orders: "Master Obi-Wan, take charge of right flank you will."

"Yes Master."

A clonetrooper touched Obi-Wan's arm. "This way, please, sir." they went back into the gunship. It took off heading west. A small skimmer promptly replaced it at the dock.

"Master Qui-Gon lead a special commando team you will. Deactivate those droids we must." Yoda continued.

Qui-Gon bowed and followed another clonetrooper into the skimmer which veered away back toward the assembly point.

Yan," Yoda looked up at Dooku. "Stay with me you will my former Padawan." the old Master bowed his assent. Finally Yoda turned to Padme. "Protected her Majesty must be. Anakin, Jacen, take her to the rear command center and remain with her you will."

"Yes Master." they chorused obediently.

They got on another gunship and headed back towards the assembly area and the big battleships. "Are you all right?" Anakin asked her quietly.

"As all right as anybody can be." she replied. "What a disaster."

"It's not your fault, Padme."

She smiled reassuringly up at him. "I know. We all did everything we could -"

"But the Sith were a move ahead of us." Jacen finished grimly.

"Hard to see is the Dark Side." Anakin sighed. "This is going to kill Palpatine, he trusted Sly Moore."

Padme nodded unhappy agreement. "I hope I'm not the one who has to tell him."


	16. Chasing The Sith

The command center was a huge, nearly spherical white space full of floating holo-screens showing schematics overlying aerial views of the battle monitored by dark, stocky, curly haired young men in the blue uniform of the Republic. One detached himself from his console and came to meet the Jedi and Amidala.

"Can I help you, sir?" he asked Anakin.

"Jedi Skywalker and Jedi Darklighter escorting Her Royal Highness Queen Amidala of the Naboo." Ani answered, sounding briskly official.

"Yes, sir, we've been expecting you." said the clonetrooper. He turned to Amidala. "Would your Highness care to observe to the battle?"

"Yes, I would." she said firmly, ignoring Ani's worried glance.

The clone showed them to an alcove on the second level equipped with a large holo-screen and three comfortable chairs. "Anything else, Ma'am? perhaps something to drink or eat?"

"No thank you." she said. The man saluted and left.

"I wonder how they tell them apart." Amidala murmured.

"Color combinations on our chest badges, Ma'am." she jumped. Another clone - at least she thought it was another - had appeared in the opening to their alcove. He smiled. "Actually we have no trouble telling each other apart, but the differences we see are too subtle for anybody except a Jedi to pick up on." She felt herself blushing and the man continued reassuringly: "No need to be embarrassed, Ma'am. We expect born people to be curious about us."

He tapped on the screen controls. "I've tied you into the central combat computer, all battle data will be available to you here." he pointed to a red button. "If you need anything just buzz."

"Thank you." Amidala said again and this clone too saluted and left.

"They seem like nice guys." Anakin said quietly.

"No reason why they shouldn't be." Jacen answered. "They can't help their ancestry - or the circumstances of their creation."

"They were made for a purpose," Anakin said musingly, "like me."

Jacen shook his head. "Not the same thing. The Force is All and it conceived you to serve the All. These poor guys were made to serve the purposes of beings no greater than themselves. It's not right."

"No it isn't." Anakin agreed, looking broodingly at the men moving around the command center. "And what's to become of them once the war is over?"

Amidala's heart sank at the thought. What was the Republic to do with tens of thousands of born soldiers when there was no one left to fight? "We'll worry about that after we win the war." she said decidedly, and activated the screen.

"Are you sure you want to watch this?" Anakin asked her.

"I don't want to - but I must." she answered. "It's no good hiding my head in the sand."

That was inarguable, and Ani didn't try to argue just addressed himself to the control box. "Let's start with a general overview of the field then."

The battle schematic showed the Republic forces as a blue crescent, it's long horns enveloping the red Separatist positions. The right flank was visibly in advance of the other, right among the starships.

"Looks like Master Obi-Wan is doing well." Jacen observed.

A number of flashing red markers indicated deactivated droids. "Looks like Master Qui-Gon's accomplished his mission too." said Anakin. He twisted a control and the perspective changed, now they were looking westward, back towards the city. Two bright dots detached themselves from towers, heading at speed towards a massif well away from the battle.

"What's that?" Amidala asked.

Anakin did something to the controls and the visual zoomed in, the bright dots resolved themselves into a black robed figure on a swoop bike followed by the armored Jango Fett.

"Sly Moore!" Jacen started up in alarm. "We've got to catch her, Anakin, if she gets away -"

"She'll rally more systems to the Separatist cause and do who knows what other mischief." his friend agreed. "Padme, call Master Yoda, tell him we've gone after the Sith and need all the help we can get fast!"

Amidala once again proved she could follow orders without argument when it mattered. She nodded: "Right." He rewarded her with a broad grin then the two Jedi ran for the door leaving her to head purposefully for the com center.

"Master Dooku, an urgent message from the Rear Command Center, sir."

"One moment," the Master said to the trooper then turned back to the com-technician to say; "Keep trying, we must reestablish communications." before following the trooper across the circular deck to another console. Dooku was surprised to see young Queen Amidala's transparent image floating above the tiny holo platform. "Your Highness?"

"Sly Moore is trying to escape." she said bluntly. "Anakin and Jacen have gone after her but they need help."

"Indeed." the Master agreed grimly. Destroying a Sith was no job for an Apprentice however gifted. Nor for an aging Jedi Master with all to much darkness of his own - but if that's all you have... "I'll be right there."

The Queen vanished and Dooku turned to the man next to him. "Get me a ship. And get word to Master Yoda as quickly as possible."

Anakin and Jacen commandeered a pair of scout swoops from the clonetroopers and headed off on an intercept course at best speed. They soon caught up with the Sith and her escort.

Fett made a tight u-turn and headed for them, bowing his shoulders to fire the missile on his jet pack. His aim was good but Jedi reflexes were better. The missile passed between them to impact on the desert floor far below.

"Keep on her!" Anakin shouted over the comlink to his partner. "I'll take care of this guy."

"Right!" Jason peeled off and headed after Darth Sinistra's diminishing form. Fett tried to pursue but Anakin blocked him.

"Pity they don't arm these things." he muttered to himself, igniting his sabre. This was likely to be a little tricky.

Fett tried to go right down his throat, firing both hand blasters. Anakin fended away his fire and, as the bounty hunter's swoop flashed past, cut off the tail vanes. It spun out of control. Fett blasted free using his jet pack but not before somehow managing to aim the damaged swoop right at Anakin.

'This guy is good,' he thought admiringly, allowing the swoop to pass close enough for him to slice away its starboard engine and send it tumbling sideways to make another crater in the Geonosian desert. 'but not good enough.' Anakin knew without vanity that there was no one anywhere as good as he was in the air or space - though someday there would be. Once again the fair haired youngster's face flashed before his inner eye, and suddenly he knew who he was looking at. 'My son - and Padme's. And that girl is his sister, our daughter!' Jedi reflexes successfully deflected another volley of blaster fire from Fett despite his distraction. 'Focus on the moment' Anakin reminded himself.

There were several minutes of rather tedious maneuvering as Fett looped around the swoop on his jet pack trying to get a shot in past the Jedi's guard, and Anakin tried to get close enough to use his sabre as ricochets bounced right off the bounty hunter's armor. But of course Fett wasn't stupid enough to let him. And his jet pack gave him a maneuverability that even Anakin's superior piloting skills couldn't completely redress.

There was one thing he might try....if it didn't work Fett could kill him, but what the heck - nothing ventured and all that. Anakin took a deep breath, let go and threw his sabre. It spun through the air sending Fett's head tumbling into the void while his dead body continued to jet upward, now uncontrolled, towards space.

Anakin grimaced a little, caught the lightsabre as it orbited back to his hand and doused it. Then checked his scope. Jacen's indicator showed brightly just a few klicks away up a winding arroyo.

He was waiting by his swoop at the mouth of a tunnel high up the cliff face. "Sorry, that took a little longer than I expected." Anakin apologized. "Glad you waited."

"You bet I did! You're the reckless one, remember?"

"Right, I knew it was one of us." Anakin peered into the darkness. "You sure she's in there?"

"Very." Jacen answered grimly. "Can't you feel her?"

Anakin stilled his mind, reached out, and shivered. "Ugh, yes."

They exchanged uneasy but determined looks. "Guess we better get on with it." said Jacen. Anakin nodded agreement and side by side they went in.

Queen Amidala greeted Dooku at the docking port. "They're off the scope," she told him, "but I saw where they went."

Clearly he could either waste valuable time arguing with the stubborn young monarch, or accept the inevitable at once and get after those two boys before it was too late. He held out a hand to help her on board. "Show me."


	17. Victory?

Anakin and Jacen advanced slowly, side by side, down the tunnel. It bored, smooth and cylindrical, deep into the massif and ended in a large, spherical launch bay. A small ship of a unfamiliar design was parked in the middle of the deck with the black cowled Darth Sinistra, throwing switches on a control panel nearby. She turned her invisible face to them as they entered and the sick dissonance of the Dark Side oozed from her, filling the dimly lit cavern with fear and menace.

Anakin swallowed. "Our only chance is to take her together - you go in slowly on the left side, I'll take the right."

"Right." Jacen murmured, shifting his grip on his lightsabre. "Clear your mind and feel the Force - and all that stuff."

"If you can through all this Dark Side interference." Anakin said with clenched teeth.

Jacen shot him a worried look. Anakin was more sensitive to the Force than most Jedi, did that mean the evil aura Sinistra put out was affecting him more? He looked awfully pale - but then Jacen was pretty sure he did too.

They ignited their lightsabres and advanced slowly on the Sith Witch, one from either side. Suddenly she moved; casting aside her hooded cloak she drew and ignited two red bladed lightsabres and fell into a crouching 'ready' stance.

The two young Jedi exchanged a final nervous but determined glance, then moved in for the attack, striking simultaneously from either direction. Sinistra blocked both blows, Jacen's back handed. Then she pushed Anakin away with her blade and flipped backward over Jacen's head putting them both in front of her. She lunged, striking out at both at once, and was parried. Jacen maneuvered behind forcing her to adopt a spinning defense.

She was good, terribly good, expertly trained in the art of sabre to sabre fighting. Anakin and Jacen wouldn't have stood a chance - even two against one - without Master Dooku's training in the ancient forms. But Anakin was definitely in trouble, the miasma of the Dark Side must be affecting him badly - or maybe he was just tired from the escape and the Arena battle. Or maybe it was a little of both.

Jacen ducked wildly to avoid a slash and went sprawling, his lightsabre flying from his hand. Anakin plunged in to cover him and Sinistra whirled and tried to engage him with both blades. Anakin gave ground in a controlled retreat, keeping her at a safe distance. Jacen called his sabre back to his hand and started for them.

"You are wise to keep your distance, young Jedi," the whispery voice said suddenly, "you remember what happened to your Master when he tried to fight Darth Maul."

"I remember that it was Maul who died." Anakin hissed back, and went on the offensive - which was exactly what Sinistra wanted. Recklessly pressing his attack he left himself open to her right hand sabre.

Jacen saw and dove in, knocking Anakin out of the way just in time, but taking the blow himself instead. Her sabre came down on his unguarded back, severing his spine and killing him instantly.

"Noooo!!!" Anakin howled.

The agonized cry echoed down the tunnel, freezing Amidala's blood and stopping her in her tracks, but sending Dooku hurtling forward, his dark robes flying. She recovered herself and ran after him arriving, breathless, just in time to see the Master's lightsabre flare to life blocking the downward slash of the Sith's red blade above a kneeling Anakin's bent head. Dooku flung Sly Moore back, then followed, forcing her away from Anakin.

Amidala ran to fling herself on her knees beside him. "Ani, are you all right?" then she saw Jacen. "Oh no."

Anakin didn't seem to hear her, or feel her grip on his arm. His attention was focused entirely on the old Master and the Sith.

Dooku circled his enemy warily, struggling with his grief, anger at the waste of Jacen's young life, fear for what his death would do to Obi-Wan and Anakin. The Sith sensed his turmoil and smiled: "Just a few seconds too late, Master Jedi. Do you want revenge for your dead pupil? Come, I can feel your rage, your hatred."

No doubt she could, Dooku struggled to master them. He must not give way to his darkness, not now. Not with the Chosen One's life and young Queen Amidala's hanging in the balance. "There is no remorse, there is no regret, there is only the Force." he told himself desperately. The Sith smiled.

The words of the litany brought Qui-Gon to mind and Dooku clutched the memory of his wise Padawan to him as a talisman. He knew exactly what Qui-Gon would say to him now; that it was presumption to claim control over events and the actions of others. That Jacen's life had not been wasted, he had given it for his friend, for the Chosen One, for their hope of defeating the Sith and righting the Balance of the Force. He had died as became a Jedi and was now one with the Force. There was nothing here to regret.

Dooku let his grief and anger leak away and a cool stillness welled into body and mind replacing them. In that stillness he felt Jacen's presence as strongly as if the boy were alive. But he was alive! he was one with all Life. Jacen had become the Force - and the Force was Jacen. "There is no death, there is no loss, there is only the Force." Dooku whispered in wonder. Then, more at one with It than he had ever been, he waited passive and at peace for the Witch's next move. She raised her hand.

Amidala gasped as lightning streaked from Sinistra's outstretched hand towards the old Jedi. And again as the Master almost casually raised his lightsabre to block and absorbed the energy. The ceiling above his head cracked and great chunks of rock began to fall, only to be shunted aside without so much as an upward glance. Light fixtures and pieces of machinery detached themselves from the walls to hurl themselves towards the Master - only to fall short.

Dooku smiled a mild, chiding smile. "Enough of these parlor tricks, Madam Moore," he said, his dark velvet voice serene, without mockery or impatience, "show me your skill with the blade."

She snarled with rage and attacked, her dual red lightsabres flashing too quick for the eye to follow. But the Master blocked every blow, his single blade painting patterns of blue light in the gloom of the landing bay, his calm face contrasting strangely with Sinistra's increasingly convulsive grimace of hate and fear.

Then, suddenly it was over; one of the Sith's two blades went flying and a backhanded strike severed her neck. The head rolled away and the body crumpled stiffly to its knees then fell flat at the Master's feet. He extinguished his lightsabre and stared down at it as if dazed - just as half a dozen Jedi raced into the chamber, their sabres blazing in their hands.

They were led, rather astonishingly, by the ancient and diminutive Yoda, with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon right behind him. All came to a full stop at the sight of Master Dooku standing over the dead Sith and Anakin and Amidala huddled together next to Jacen's body. Then they simultaneously doused their blades.

Little Master Yoda limped to Dooku's side, reached up to touch his hand. "Well done, my old Padawan." he said quietly.

"Thank you, Master." Dooku managed, huskily.

Obi-Wan came to kneel beside Jacen's body opposite Anakin and Amidala, his face almost frightening in its expressionlessness.

"It's all my fault." Ani whispered painfully. "I lost my temper, lost focus. It should have been me who died."

Obi-Wan glanced up at him and Amidala had to look away from the pain in his eyes, but his voice held nothing but asperity. "Don't talk nonsense, Ani! Do you think I'd be feeling one bit better right now if it had been you? You think I don't know how hard it is to keep calm and focused against a Sith? It could have been either of you - or even both of you. It was the will of the Force it should be Jacen who died."

Qui-Gon put a gentle hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder and he bowed his head, visibly struggling to master his grief. "Jacen was a true Jedi," the Master told his former Apprentice softly, "he has become one with the Force."

Obi-Wan nodded convulsively but didn't look up. Anakin began to cry, almost silently, shoulders shaking and Amidala put her arms around him, fighting back her own tears.

"Jacen died guarding a comrade's back." said Dooku's rippling velvet voice. Looking up Amidala saw he and Yoda had come to join them beside the fallen Jedi's body. "Reproach yourself only if you would not have done the same for him." 1

"I would have." Anakin said brokenly. "I wish I had." Amidala hugged him harder.

"What about me?" she demanded in a near whisper. "Ani, please don't wish yourself dead. It would kill me to lose you so soon after finding you!" Anakin looked at her startled, then wiped his eyes on his sleeve and made an effort to control himself. The Jedi Masters around them either didn't hear or pretended not to.

"And you, young one," Yoda said gently to Obi-Wan, "how are you?"

He took a deep, steadying breath before raising a mask-like face to answer: "I'm all right, Master."

Yoda looked at him skeptically. "All right, are you? To lose a Padawan a heavy grief - heavy grief. Know this I do, only too well." he studied Obi-Wan a long moment, then nodded. "Talk later we will."

"Master Yoda," a non-human Jedi with a mane of greenish tentacles appeared at the ancient Master's shoulder, "we found this in the Sith's ship." It was a tiny holo projector, the Jedi touched the control and a schematic etched in red light appeared. It looked like some kind of ship or space station.

Anakin stared at it, transfixed.: He saw a massive metal behemoth orbiting like a sullen moon above a blue world and obliterating it; the girl he knew to be his daughter sleeping in a tiny black cell then wakened by a soldier who pulled off his helmet to show Anakin the face of his son; the two of them running, running, pursued by soldiers in white armor similar but not quite identical to that of the Clonetroopers; then his son's face, calm and intent, as he fired a missile and the battle station exploded; Anakin heard his own voice say, 'Well done, son' and saw his daughter running towards them, face alight with joy, to fling herself into her brother's arms.

- Then he was back in the landing bay kneeling beside Jacen's body with Padme's arms around him and his Masters all watching him.

"Seen something you have?" said Yoda.

"Yes, Master." Anakin managed to answer. "It's a weapon, a planet killer." And it was going to be built and used in spite of their victory here at Geonosis and in spite of the Sith Witch's death. His son and Padme's would destroy it, but their son and his sister wouldn't be born for years yet! How long was this war going to last?

Yoda nodded slowly, grimly, as if he'd heard the unspoken as well as the spoken words. Then he held out his small green hand for the holo-projector and tucked it somewhere inside his robes. "Done what we can, we have." he said heavily. "Now go home we may."

Note 1. This line is not original. I'm quite sure I've read it, or something like it, somewhere - but where?


	18. Back To Coruscant

Making his way through the lower levels of the stalagmite city, back to the exhaust port where he'd left Padme's ship, Anakin saw only white armored clonetroopers methodically destroying every last machine in the great droid factories. The Geonosians seemed to have vanished entirely. When asked the clones could only shrug.

"Sorry, sir, but I have no idea where they could have gone." a junior officer told him. "Certainly we've seen no sign of them."

"It probably doesn't matter." Anakin answered listlessly. Geonosis wouldn't be contributing any more droids to the Separatists whatever had happened to her people.

The tunnel back to the ship was as empty as the rest of the city, which was good. Anakin knew with grim, cold certainty that he was in no mood to fight with the restraint expected of a Jedi. Grief led to anger every bit as surely as fear did. And every Jedi knew where anger led.

The ship was right where they'd left it - safe and sound - with both his droids aboard. "Good. You found him, Artoo." he said, and the astro-droid gave a satisfied bleep.

"It was a nightmare, Master Anakin!" Threepio all but wailed. "First that dreadful factory - then I found myself in the middle of a battle! I was programmed for languages and protocol not destruction!"

"I know Threepio. I'm sorry, things got a little out of hand." Anakin slid into the pilot's seat and found the ship warmed and ready to go, just as ordered. "Good work, Artoo."

C-3PO tilted his immobile metal face to one side and somehow managed to look worried. "Pardon me, sir, but are you all right?"

Anakin sighed. "Not really, Threepio. My best friend is dead and the Galaxy is at war."

"Oh! Oh dear." the droid sounded upset. "I'm only an interpreter, but if there's anything I can do, Master Anakin -"

"Not yet, but there will be." he turned to give his 3PO unit a sudden smile. "I have a feeling you're going to be a great help to me, Threepio."

"Oh thank you, sir!" the droid answered, flattered. "I certainly hope to be."

Artoo uttered a soft, derisive whistle.

Anakin brought Padme's little courier vessel to rest in the vehicle bay of the Republic command ship. Then, trailed by Artoo and Threepio, he went up, up, up a hundred or so levels to report to his Masters on the command bridge.

Mace Windu was standing in front of a huge port full of stars listening to the report of a clonetrooper officer.

"It was a small ship, sir, one or two man, and didn't fit the configuration of any known fighter so we hailed instead of firing on it. It refused to respond and accelerated rapidly out of the system. I'm afraid we lost it."

Mace looked past the man with the detached, distant expression that Anakin knew meant he was Seeing something. "You weren't meant to catch him, captain, not yet. His time will come."

Either the clones had been warned about the Jedi habit of making mystical and enigmatic remarks or they'd learned to accept it in record time. The man simply saluted and moved off. The Master's eyes turned to Anakin.

"The Queen's ship is secure on board, Master." he reported. Mace nodded, then looked past Anakin to his mechanical entourage.

"Uh, this is Cee-Threepio, a protocol droid my mother lent me."

A hint of smile touched the Master's face. "He is your mother's property?"

"Yes, Master, I'm just borrowing him."

"I see." the amusement slid away. "Get some rest, Anakin."

His face quivered in spite of himself. "It 's very hard to accept, Master. It seems so unfair."

"I know. Believe me I know." Mace put a consoling hand on his shoulder. "It won't always hurt this much, Anakin, in time you will find peace again. And Qui-Gon is just the man to help you do it." a faint crack of a smile. "He has done so for me more than once."

Anakin smiled a little too at the thought of his Master, then looked around. "Where is Master Yoda?"

"Resting, meditating." Mace's expression was sad. "Each of us has lost friends and comrades today, but he has lost students he has known and trained from earliest childhood. And will lose more before this is over."

Anakin thought of his own pain for Jacen's death, multiplied it a hundred and thirty times - with more to come - and shivered. "It will kill him." No one could bear so much grief, not even Yoda.

"I fear it might." Mace agreed quietly.

Anakin found he'd been assigned to a standard officer's cabin, with two bunks and a door leading to an adjoining room, he looked in. It seemed to be some kind of common room with a table seating four, comfortable lounges, shelves for book-crystals or ornaments and a big oval port.

Obi-Wan was standing at the port, looking out at the red globe of Geonosis, with Qui-Gon close behind him. "He is not lost." the Master was saying. "Jacen has become one with the Force. When you touch It, you touch him."

"I know," Obi-Wan choked, "but it's not the same - I miss him already!" breaking down at last, he buried his face in his hands. Qui-Gon put an arm around his shaking shoulders, a silent but infinitely comforting presence. A rock to lean on in grief or trouble.

Anakin gently closed the door. His Master would have time for him later, but for now Obi-Wan's need was the greater. He would find Padme, her presence always soothed him.

She had been given a general officer's suite several levels above Anakin's quarters. Somebody had brought her luggage from her ship and she had changed into a soft gray gown shimmering with gold thread and tiny blue and yellow gemstones. She came straight to his arms.

"Oh, Ani," she said into his chest, "it's all so awful. Poor Jacen. And now we're at war, where will it all end? What will become of us?"

"I don't know what's going to happen, Padme." he answered quietly. "But I do know there will be time for us - somehow, some way. I've seen our children."

"Children!" she pulled back to stare up at him.

He grinned at little. "A girl like you and a boy like me. And with double their parent's gift for trouble from what I saw!" then he sobered. "Padme, I saw them about the age we are now, fighting beside us. I'm afraid this war might last a very long time."

"You mean years, even decades?" she asked in disbelief - and horror. "Anakin if that's true how can we possibly take time for ourselves?"

"We'll find a way." he answered grimly. "It's not self-indulgence, Padme. Our children must be born. The Sith are always two, I can't face them alone. I'll need our son beside me. And you will need our daughter's help just as badly in your own arena." he hugged her closer. "Don't be afraid, Padme, whatever happens we'll face it together; you, and me, and our children."

When he finally returned to his own cabin Anakin was surprised to find Master Dooku sitting on the second bunk, chatting away with Threepio in some strange alien language.

"Qui-Gon is staying with Obi-Wan tonight." the old Master explained. "he must not be left to brood alone."

Anakin cracked a faint grin. "Nor me either." and was answered by a slight twinkle in the Master's deep eyes.

"Qui-Gon apparently feels you can be safely left to my less then tender mercies." Anakin lay down on his bunk as the Master's dark, silken voice continued sadly: "In a way Jacen's death is my fault. If I'd been just a few minutes sooner -"

"That's nonsense!" Anakin interrupted firmly. "You know it is, Master, you came as quick as you could, it wasn't your fault that the Sith -" then he broke off to mock glare at the Master, realizing he'd been tricked.

Dooku smiled. "Quite right, young Padawan. It was the Sith that killed Jacen - and no one else."

"Sneaky, Master, very sneaky." Anakin snorted, settling back on his pillow. "But - you're right. I did lose my temper and my focus but I never meant to put Jacen in danger. I'll try to remember that."

"You are still just a Padawan," Dooku said, almost gently, "nobody expects you to be perfect, my young friend."

"That's good." Anakin said wryly. "Because I'm surely not!"

The Master lay down too and the cabin lights dimmed. Threepio's yellow eyes and and Artoo's single red one glowed in the shadows.

"We're cornered aren't we, Master?" Anakin said quietly, after a while. "Trapped into playing the Sith's game."

"I fear so." Dooku's rich, dark voice answered out of the darkness. "But there will be a way out, Anakin. Trust the Force, as your Master would say."

"Easy for him." Anakin mumbled.

"No." the Master's voice was almost sharp. "It was not easy at all. Qui-Gon fought a long, hard battle to become what he is."

"I'm sorry, Master." Anakin said chastened. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."

"It is an understandable mistake." said Dooku. "You have known Qui-Gon only as your wise Master. I remember him as a Padawan, young and unsure of himself - much like you."

"Like me." Anakin echoed in a wondering whisper.


	19. The Clone Wars Begin

Master Yoda and Mace Windu met with the three newest members of the Jedi Council in the Council chamber high above Coruscant.

"Yan," Windu asked, "could Sly Moore have been the Sith Master?"

Dooku shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, Mace, she was just too young to have been Maul's teacher, she must have been his replacement, The Sith Master is still out there."

"At least with his pupil dead he will lose his influence over the Republic government." Obi-Wan said grimly.

"Never the less I feel we should keep a closer eye on Senate." said Mace.

"I agree." said Yoda.

Obi-Wan shifted in his chair. "I must admit, without the clones Geonosis would not have been a victory."

Yoda lifted his head. "Victory? Victory, you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, this Clone War has."

"War is what the Sith wanted," Qui-Gon said quietly, "a Republic victory might serve his purpose very well."

Obi-Wan frowned at his old Master. "Are you saying we should lose? Or maybe not fight at all?"

Qui-Gon looked thoughtful. "Perhaps."

"We can't do that," Mace said shocked. "the Jedi are the sworn protectors of the Republic!"

"The Republic is corrupt, we all know it." said Dooku. "Perhaps it should fall, to clear the way for something better."

"What better?" Obi-Wan demanded. "The Separatists are controlled the by the Sith!"

Dooku's eyebrows rose. "So was the Republic Senate. The Sith has used us all, Obi-Wan, we have been maneuvered like game pieces to serve his purposes."

"Is there no way out of the trap?" the youngest Master demanded despairingly.

"We must do what we feel is right, and trust in the Force." Qui-Gon said serenely. "It will show us a way out - in Its own good time."

Amidala of Naboo sat in the Chancellor's office, the weight of her black and silver robes and nacre diadem pressing down on her, and the royal paint freezing her face into an expressionless mask. Sabe and Yane, now fully recovered, stood behind her chair and Anakin beside it, hands tucked into the sleeves of his robe.

The Chancellor was behind his desk, head bowed in grief. "I can't believe it, I trusted Sly Moore. I gave her charge of my bodyguard and entrusted the Separatist negotiations to her. I played right into her hands! How could I have been so blind?

"Lies and deceit are the tools of the dark side." Anakin told him gently. "She even fooled the Jedi. You mustn't blame yourself, Chancellor."

Palpatine produced an unconvincing smile. "I will try not to." then massaged his forehead with both hands. "And now we are at war - where will this all end?"

"In a better, stronger, Republic, I hope." said Amidala. "We must have faith, Chancellor. Faith in our own strength and in the rightness of our cause."

"Yes." he straightened, a look of determination coming over his weary face. "Your Majesty - Amidala, I know by custom you should abdicate this year but I beg you, ma'am to delay until this crisis is settled." he reached out a hand appealingly. "I need your help, the councils of the Republic need your voice. I know it is a terrible thing to ask when you have sacrificed so much to your public duty -"

"I have already decided I cannot leave the throne while the Galaxy is at war." Amidala cut in quietly. "And the upper and lower legislatures have concurred with my decision. It would be unthinkable to lay this burden on a successor."

Palpatine sighed in relief. "Hopefully our new clone army will bring this war to a swift and victorious end. And then, your Majesty, you and I can both retire to private life with clear consciences."

"I hope so." said Amidala, unwillingly remembering what Anakin had said about a long war - long enough for their unborn children to grown up and fight in it. How she hoped he was wrong!

"Your Excellency, we found this in the Sith Witch's ship." Anakin stepped forward to lay the little holo module on Palpatine's desk and activate it. The Chancellor looked at the slowly revolving red schematic sphere in puzzlement.

"What is it?"

"Plans for a weapon, sir," Anakin answered grimly, "the Separatists' ultimate weapon. The Jedi Council very much hopes this is the only copy but they can't be sure of it. My Masters strongly recommend you have the plans carefully analyzed for potential weaknesses."

"Yes, of course." the Chancellor said and reached for the unit, switching it off and tucking it into a pocket. "I will have my own staff of specialists go over it." He rose. "I am expected at the spaceport to join the new Senate War committee in overseeing the embarkation of our troops. If your Majesty would care to join me -?"

Amidala forced a smile. "Thank you, Chancellor, but no. I have already seen the clonetroopers in action."

He smiled ruefully in return. "I understand." then the smile faded. "War is a bitter thing but it must be faced. We must fight, we can do no other."

Amidala and Anakin both murmured their agreement.

Anakin handed Amidala into the large enclosed skimmer that had brought them to the Chancery, then slipped behind the controls. "What are you going to do now, Padme?" he asked as they unlatched from the landing platform and dropped into Coruscant's intricate traffic patterns.

"Go home, put Naboo on a war footing - Oh Ani, are we going to be invaded again?"

"I hope not." he said. "Are you getting some clonetroopers?"

She nodded. "Ten thousand of them. An army - a standing army. Naboo's never had such a thing, not even during the troubles!"

"On the plus side ten thousand clonetroopers are likely to discourage the Separatists from attacking." he offered.

"I know, I know. That's why I accepted them in the first place." she admitted, then added unhappily. "It's just I seem to be flouting our traditions at every turn. It feels wrong - but what else can I do?"

"Nothing." he answered firmly. "As Queen you have to defend Naboo - and you can't dump this load on some poor kid so you have to stay Queen - for a while anyway."

"What about you, Ani. What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "the Council has a lot of work to do calling in and reassigning Jedi to war duties. Master Qui-Gon and I probably won't be going anywhere for a while." he paused a moment, then continued determinedly. "But somehow I'm going to get Obi-Wan to Tatooine to meet Cleig and Owen."

She looked at him in some surprise. "Now, with all that's happening?"

He nodded. "Yes, now. We may not get another chance. And it's important - I feel it."

Amidala knew by now there was no arguing with a Jedi's 'feelings'. "I hope it goes all right."

"Me too." Anakin said ruefully.

They disembarked on the landing platform attached to Senator Jamillia's tower. Sabe and Yane saw the looks Anakin and Amidala were giving each other, and tactfully - but in violation of all protocol - went into the building ahead of their Queen.

Padme, encased in Amidala's paint and robes, looked forlornly up at Anakin. "When will I see you again?"

"I don't know." he answered quietly. "But it won't be too long, I promise." he put his hands on her shoulders. "There will be time for us, Padme, and for the children."

She nodded, unable to speak for fear of bursting into tears. He bent to kiss her gently, but she flung her arms around his neck and returned it passionately - not caring what might happen to her makeup and massive headdress.

When they finally broke apart Anakin had red paint on his lips and his robes were liberally dusted with white powder. What little powder remained on Amidala's face was patchy with plenty of healthy pink showing through, her diadem was awry and her back hair beginning to come down. They looked at each other and laughed.

"What will Sabe and Yane say?" he asked teasingly.

Padme grinned. "Nothing at all if they know what's good for them! But I know what they'll be thinking!" standing on tiptoe she wiped the red off his lips with a fold of her mantle and tried to brush the powder from his robe, with little success. "But what will the Jedi think?"

"Oh we never think about such things at all." Anakin answered lightly. Then his face turned grave. "May the Force be with you, Darling, till we meet again."

"And with you too, my Dearest Ani."

THE END! (for now)


End file.
